Houston lawyer loses Cruz 'birther' lawsuit
Houston lawyer loses Cruz 'birther' lawsuit
By Gabrielle Banks
April 13, 2016
http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/45/30/22...3/460x1240.jpgPhoto: James Nielsen, Staff
Layne Kruse speaks during the Texas Defender Service's Light of Justice luncheon at the Hilton Americas-Houston Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013, in Houston. ( James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle )
A Houston judge Wednesday tossed out the fifth federal lawsuit in the country challenging whether Sen. Ted Cruz is eligible to be president.
U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the Houston lawyer who brought the claim may not file suit again. As a citizen and taxpayer in Texas, attorney Newton Boris Schwartz had no legal standing to bring the case, the judge ruled.
Schwartz, who is 85 and wore an American flag lapel pin with a red-, white- and blue-striped tie to court, said the ruling wouldn't stop him. He asked the judge to move quickly so he could get to New Orleans to file an appeal with the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Federal judges have rejected similar lawsuits in New York, New Hampshire, Utah and Arkansas, on grounds that the plaintiffs' lacked standing or the jurisdiction was improper. A federal claim in Alabama is pending.
So-called "birther" lawsuits have also been filed in state courts in Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Indiana and Illinois demanding that Cruz's name - and in some cases the name of Florida senator and former GOP candidate Marco Rubio - be removed from primary ballots.
Cruz is among three candidates remaining in the Republican primary race for the GOP presidential nomination.
The federal case in Houston - which identifies Cruz by his full name, Rafael Edward Cruz - states Cruz is not eligible to run for president under Article II of the Constitution, which states that the president must be a "natural born citizen."
Lawsuits also challenged Miami-born Rubio's eligibility for president on grounds that his parents weren't naturalized citizens when he was born, but the judge dismissed that motion a week after it was filed.
Schwartz said after the hearing that he supports Democrat Bernie Sanders for president, declaring him to be the "least worst" candidate.
Schwartz, who has practiced law for 63 years, made a name for himself in the 1970s suing Monsanto over the impact of Agent Orange on American soldiers in Vietnam.
The oral arguments Wednesday by Schwartz and Cruz's attorney, Layne Kruse, drew a small crowd of spectators who wanted, as one visitor later explained, "to watch history being made." The judge's wife and several friends watched from the jury box.
Kruse argued that Schwartz lacked standing to question the Texas senator's candidacy. He said challenges to a candidate's eligibility for office are the purview of the electoral college and the legislative wing of government, not the judiciary.
He argued that Schwartz did not have a cause of action because there was no evidence he had been directly harmed by Cruz being on the ballot.
Kruse's surname caused confusion for the court reporter because of its similarity to his famous client's last name.
The judge didn't mince words about dismissing the case, after Schwartz finished his argument.
"It seems to me the weight of authority is on the side of dismissal for standing," he said.
A congenial back-and-forth ensued after adjournment between Kruse, Schwartz, the judge and those seated in the jury box. Schwartz told reporters and a Twitter fan who'd come to watch he planned to catch a flight to New Orleans, as soon as the dismissal hit the docket.
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