Why is Cruz running?

Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Unless I am very much mistaken, he cannot be President of the United States without there being a change in the Constitution.

I have seen news coverage on two occasions without mention of this. What gives?

Quote: hi wikepedia article

Personal details
Born Rafael Edward Cruz[1]
December 22, 1970 (age 44)
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Quote: odiousgambit

Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Unless I am very much mistaken, he cannot be President of the United States without there being a change in the Constitution.

I have seen news coverage on two occasions without mention of this. What gives?

Quote: hi wikepedia article

Personal details
Born Rafael Edward Cruz[1]
December 22, 1970 (age 44)
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

He renounced his right to be a Canadian citizen in 2014. He is a natural born US citizen, as he is entitled to US citizenship at the point of birth via his mother.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause#Ted_Cruz

and:

For persons born between December 24, 1952 and November 14, 1986, a person is a U.S. citizen if all of the following are true:[10]

The person's parents were married at the time of birth
One of the person's parents was a U.S. citizen when the person was born
The citizen parent lived at least ten years in the United States before the child's birth;
A minimum of 5 of these 10 years in the United States were after the citizen parent's 14th birthday.

I should have kept reading LOL - thanks!

Quote: odiousgambit

I should have kept reading LOL - thanks!

Fell into same trap on WoV earlier today :D

This might just show how xenophobic the GOP, and America, truly is. If he wins the candidacy, that is.

Quote: odiousgambit

Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Unless I am very much mistaken, he cannot be President of the United States without there being a change in the Constitution. I have seen news coverage on two occasions without mention of this. What gives?

I'm not a constitution expert, but I think that "natural born citizen" is interpreted rather liberally to roughly mean born of at least one US parent. John McCain was born in Panama (likely in a hospital just outside the U.S. Canal Zone) but nobody made a deal about that, correctly so.

Quote: Wizard

I'm not a constitution expert, but I think that "natural born citizen" is interpreted rather liberally to roughly mean born of at least one US parent. John McCain was born in Panama (likely in a hospital just outside the U.S. Canal Zone) but nobody made a deal about that, correctly so.

His mom says it was inside the zone : "His mother, Roberta McCain, has said that she has vivid memories of lying in bed listening to raucous celebrations of her son's birth from the nearby officers' club." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause#John_McCain

No real matter, it seems clear from a liberal interpretation of the rules, anyone born to a US Citizen, who has lived for a long period of time in the US, is they themselves a natural born US citizen. And a US national (not all US nationals are US citizens it seems while the converse does hold).

(PS: before the conservative members get all excited, the word 'liberal' here doesn't mean anything about party affiliation).

Quote: Wizard

I'm not a constitution expert, but I think that "natural born citizen" is interpreted rather liberally to roughly mean born of at least one US parent. John McCain was born in Panama (likely in a hospital just outside the U.S. Canal Zone) but nobody made a deal about that, correctly so.

Wikipedia has a good article on eligibility.

A few interesting points:

*Obama was hardly the only POTUS or candidate to have his eligibility questioned. Chester A. Arthur was rumored to have been born in Canada. A lawsuit questioning McCain's eligibility was filed in 2008. And Cruz already is entered on the page with this group.

*"Natural Born Citizen" was not really defined. My reading is that if you have citizenship at birth you will be eligible. IOW, as long as you were not "naturalized" and took the test, etc, you can run.

*Requirements for natural born have changed multiple times over the years.

*Lawsuits to challenge the requirement have been brought up, thought it is hard to imagine how a Constitutional requirement can be unconstitutional.


Bottom line is Cruz should have no real issues though I expect that there will be an uproar among liberals wanting "payback" for Obama being asked to verify his citizenship.

Quote: AZDuffman

Bottom line is Cruz should have no real issues though I expect that there will be an uproar among liberals wanting "payback" for Obama being asked to verify his citizenship.

Waste of time really... he already has done that... or had it done for him. He even got rid of his Canuck credentials (though like my own natural born citizenship of the UK by birth, it's a right that you can readily get back after renouncing it, unless you've been a VERY bad person).

Quote: Wizard

I'm not a constitution expert, but I think that "natural born citizen" is interpreted rather liberally to roughly mean born of at least one US parent.

The more I think about it, the more I think the somersaults Cruz is performing on this matter will be trouble if he ever gets very far down the line. Indeed, one only needs to look at what happened to Obama, who I personally do not doubt was born in Hawaii.