Thread: Ted Cruz ballot challenge appealed to PA Supreme Court

Ted Cruz ballot challenge appealed to PA Supreme Court

In this March 24, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas and wife Heidi walk on stage before the candidate spoke at a campaign stop in Dane, Wis. (Andy Manis / AP)


Scott Kraus Contact Reporter Of The Morning Call

Ted Cruz birther ballot challenge appealed in PA.

The Pittsburgh man who lost a legal challenge to Texas Sen.Ted Cruz's eligibility to serve as President has appealed his defeat to the state Supreme Court.

Carmon Elliott, a retiree and registered Republican, argued at a March 10 hearing before Commonwealth Court Judge Dan Pellegrini that Cruz's Canadian birth, albeit to a mother who was a U.S. citizen at the time, disqualifies him from appearing on the April 26 primary ballot.
Pellegrini ruled that as a U.S. citizen from birth, Cruz is eligible to appear on the ballot.

Elliott filed the appeal Monday. While the Supreme Court has discretion to decide whether or not to accept appeals of cases that originate at the county court level, it is required to accept election case appeals such as Elliot's.

In his appeal brief, Elliot argues that Cruz is not a natural born citizen and therefore ineligible to hold the office of president under the Constitution.

"Individuals born outside the United States are not natural born citizens even if a naturalization statute passed by Congress gives them automatic citizenship at birth," Elliott writes in the appeal.

Time is running out to register for Pa. primary elections

In his brief opposing the appeal, Cruz attorney Robert Feltoon argues that state courts are not the appropriate venue for determining a presidential candidate's eligibility for the office.

"The question of whether a candidate for President of the United States is eligible to take office is within the purview of the Electoral College and the U.S. Congress — not this (or any other) Court," Feltoon wrote in a brief opposing the appeal.

That argument aside, Cruz is clearly a "natural born citizen," and fully eligible to be President, he writes.

Cruz has faced challenges of his birthplace in several states, but none have succeeded in knocking him off the ballot. A New York appeals court rejected a similar challenge on Thursday.

Ted Cruz's citizenship case may go to Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Republican primary opponent Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Cruz, who was born in Calgary to his mother, a U.S. citizen and his father who at the time was a Cuban citizen, over the issue on the campaign trail.

With an April 26 primary looming, Pennsylvania's Secretary of State Pedro A. Cortés certified the ballot on Wednesday, including Cruz among the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, said Wanda Murren, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State.

But counties were warned that because of court challenges pending against Cruz and Joseph Vodvarka, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, that certification might have to be amended. Some counties also have local ballot challenges pending.

"There really isn't anything we can do except let the court cases play out," Murren said.

Counties facing tight deadlines to print ballots or configure electronic voting machines won't be required to remove candidates from the ballot if a judge rules against them, unless that ruling includes an order specifically directing that their names be removed and ballots reprinted, she said.

Scott.kraus@mcall.com
Twitter @skraus
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http://www.mcall.com/news/local/elec...325-story.html

Ted Cruz is not a natural born citizen under Article II of the US Constitution. A natural born citizen is someone born in the United States to 2 US Citizens, and Cruz meets neither one of these requirements, let alone both. He is totally disqualified and I hope American voters stop voting for candidates for President who do not meet this very simple low-level basic standard. There is a reason for it, and it has a good cause and purpose.