There are two types of citizenship; Natural Born and Naturalized. Is Ted Cruz a Naturalized citizen? No. Is Ted Cruz a US Citizen? Yes. Therefore, he is a Natural Born citizen.
From the PDF”
II. THE MEANING OF THE PHRASE IN THE EARLY UNITED STATES
The “Natural Born†Concept Is Added to the Constitution
. . . The first draft of the Constitution to include qualifications for the
presidency was reported on August 22, 1787.
This draft provided that “he shall be of the age of thirty
five years, and a Citizen of the United States, and shall have been an Inhabitant
thereof for Twenty one years.â€
Earlier, on July 25 of that year, John Jay sent the following letter to George Washington,
who was serving as the president of the Constitutional Convention at the time:
Permit me to hint, whether it would not be wise & reasonable to
provide a . . . strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the
administration of our national Government; and to declare
expressly that the Command in chief of the American army shall
not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen.
On September 2, Washington acknowledged receipt of Jay’s missive and
thanked him “for the hints contained in [his] letter.â€
Two days later, on September 4, a Committee of Eleven reported the following provision to the
Convention:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the U.S. at
the time of the adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to the
office of President: nor shall any Person be elected to that office,
who shall be under the age of 35 years, and who has not been in the
whole, at least 14 years a resident within the U.S.
On September 7, the Convention approved these requirements without objection, and only stylistic changes were made thereafter.
One of the most important early American jurists, Joseph Story, approved
of the provision. In his treatise on the Constitution [1833], he praised the
Framers’ decision to limit the presidency to “natural born citizens.â€
...
Story additionally claimed that “the general propriety of the exclusion of
foreigners, in common cases, will scarcely be doubted by any sound
statesman. It cuts off all chances for ambitious foreigners who might otherwise
be intriguing for the office.â€
I just realized at least part of the disconnect here: The "Birthers" (in the broadest sense) are trying to argue that because the English common law is the basis for U.S. law, that it then trumps (pun intended) U.S. law. This is nonsense.
English common law is a "rough draft" for our laws. In effect, it says that if we don't have a specific law to cover a situation, or if our law is ambiguous, then we can use English common law to clarify the issue.
If Congress had never passed an Immigration bill, then common law would be relevant. But Congress did pass Immigration laws, which included definitions of "Natural Born Citizen". Because Congress passed specific laws covering the issue, common law is no longer relevant.
Wow - am i missing something the initial draft of the constitution contained something completely different than what was written in this article. That difference is SIGNIFICANT in understanding the meaning of “Natural Born Citizen”.
The Original Text was
No person hall be eligible to the office of President of the United States unless he be now a citizen of one of the states, or hereafter be born a citizen of the United States.
Please notice the “born a citizen of the United States”
this phase is what John Jay was specifically calling out in his note to Washington. John Hay was petitioning to change this to “Natural Born Citizen” as this clause defined in “Laws of Nation” was understood to be born on sovereign soil to 2 citizen parents.
This is SIGNIFICANT as it implies that being born a citizen was not good enough, as John Jay implies.
Another egregious error in the omission of the definition offered by John Bingham. John Bingham was the framer of the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment defined “Naturalization” Although the 14th amendment did not include the term Natural Born Citizen. During congressional hearings on the 14th amendment John Bingham offered this definition of Natural Born Citizen into the congressional record :
“All from other lands, who by the terms of your laws and a compliance with their provisions become naturalized, are adopted citizens of the United States; all other persons born within the Republic, of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty, are natural-born citizens. Gentlemen can find no exception to this statement touch natural born citizens except what is said in the Constitution in relation to Indians.
these two omissions are significant as they harden the intent of the founders in finding that Natural Born Citizen differs from born a citizen or citizen by birth. And indicate that a Natural Born Citizen is one who is born within the sovereign nation to 2 citizens.
If you take a firm constructionist view of the constitution then the founders intent is clear.
As to this definition both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are not eligible to hold the office of President Of The United States of America