Thread: Is Ted Cruz eligible to be President?

Constitutional Scholars Explain Why Ted Cruz Is Eligible to Be President

• By RYAN STRUYK

Jan 6, 2016, 5:21 PM ET

Donald Trump says questions about whether Ted Cruz is eligible to be President of the United States could become a “big problem” for the Canadian-born Republican candidate. But among legal scholars, there’s a consensus: He’s eligible to occupy the Oval Office.

The Texas senator, who was born in Calgary, Canada, to an American mother, has been widely viewed as meeting the “natural born citizen” requirement of the United States Constitution. And most legal experts agree -- including former Solicitors General Neal Katyal and Paul Clement.

“An individual born to a U.S. citizen parent -- whether in California or Canada or the Canal Zone -- is a U.S. citizen from birth and is fully eligible to serve as President,” the bipartisan duo wrote in a Harvard Law Review article in March 2015. Trump first raised this question of President Obama in 2008, saying that the future president, who was born in Hawaii, may not be eligible.

Laurence Tribe, a professor at Harvard Law School, told ABC News that Trump's alternative definition would mean that only citizens born in the United States would be eligible.

“My own view as a constitutional scholar is that the better view -- the one most consistent with the entire Constitution -- is the broader definition, according to which Cruz would be eligible,” he said, including anyone who is a U.S. citizen at birth and doesn’t need to be naturalized.

Burt Neuborne, a professor at New York University Law School, agreed: “It seems to me that his citizenship is just as good as Donald Trump’s citizenship.”

Facing questions about his nationality before he announced his candidacy for president, Cruz took the unusual step in June 2014 of formally renouncing his Canadian citizenship. Cruz said today on the campaign trail that the question is “settled law.” But most scholars agree that the question has not yet been officially resolved.

“I think there’s a scholarly consensus, but it’s not a done deal,” said Sarah Helene Duggin, a professor at the Catholic University of America, adding that experts aren't unanimous on the issue. “I don’t think it’s open and shut at all.”

Tribe, who also taught constitutional law to Cruz and Obama at Harvard, concurred. “I don’t agree that it’s ‘settled law,’” he told ABC News. “The Supreme Court has never addressed the issue one way or the other, as I believe Ted ought to know.”

Trump also says that the question could prompt a long, drawn-out battle in the courts that could spell problems for the Republican Party. But Neuborne disagrees.

“You’re putting the presidency in play in some way in a world in which the American president is the anchor,” Neuborne said. “When that is threatened, the American judiciary moves immediately and fast.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/const...ry?id=36127821

After months of playing nice, Cruz hits Trump. Then hits him again. And again.

By Katie Zezima January 13 at 8:17 AM

After months of responding to Donald Trump's attacks by deflecting them, joking about them or just plain ignoring them, Ted Cruz struck back late Tuesday with a stream of pointed criticism directed at the GOP front-runner.

At events in New Hampshire and in radio interviews, Cruz took direct aim at Trump on several fronts: tying the billionaire to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, questioning his ability to win a general election, casting doubt on his ability to serve as commander in chief and disputing his "New York values."

The swiftness and ferocity of the attacks is striking for Cruz, who said as recently as Monday that he didn't want to go to war with Trump. The two men are battling for the top spot in polls in Iowa, which host the first-in-the-nation caucuses Feb. 1. Cruz said Tuesday that Trump was clearly feeling the pressure.

"The Donald seems to be a little bit rattled," Cruz said on "The Howie Carr Show" on Boston's WRKO.

Cruz took direct aim at Trump's competence. "Does a potential commander in chief know what the nuclear triad is, much less is he or she prepared and able to strengthen it and keep this country safe?" Cruz asked on "The Hugh Hewitt Show." In a Republican debate last month, Trump was asked about the nuclear triad and had trouble with the explanation.

Senator Ted Cruz is one of many Republican presidential candidates touring Iowa to rally up support before the Caucus. Here's a glimpse of what a day on the bus tour is like.

And he jabbed Trump on the billionaire's cosmopolitan lifestyle. “I think he may shift in his new rallies to playing New York, New York, because Donald comes from New York and he embodies New York values,” Cruz told Carr.

Cruz had long said he did not want to be engaged in a "cage match" with Trump, even as most of the Republican field grew critical of the billionaire. Still, in recent weeks he had begun tacitly questioning Trump's ability and his electability. His campaign had been gaming out ways Trump could strike against Cruz and how to respond forcefully well before the businessman raised a fresh round of questions over whether Cruz's birthplace affects his eligibility to be president.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hammered away again at fellow candidate Ted Cruz over his citizenship, questioning Cruz's eligibility to be president. (Reuters)

For the past week, Trump has said that Cruz should go to court and seek a judgment to resolve the matter of his eligibility for the presidency. A number of Cruz's fellow Republicans —including Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Sen. Rand Paul, the senator from Kentucky who is also a presidential candidate — have also said that Cruz's Canadian birth could be an issue. On Monday, Laurence Tribe, a professor of Cruz's at Harvard Law School, accused Cruz of "constitutional hypocrisy" and said the senator's own legal philosophy would disqualify him from being able to be sworn in as president.

"Laurence Tribe is a liberal Democratic activist. He is a hard-core Hillary Clinton supporter," Cruz told Hewitt on Tuesday. "And suddenly, Hillary Clinton supporters are rushing out to support Donald Trump’s attacks directed at me. And it starts to make you think, gosh, why are Hillary’s strongest supporters trying to prop up Donald Trump?"

Cruz suggested that Trump's increasing jabs at him indicated only that the mogul was "getting nervous."

"Right now, Donald is losing to Hillary by a pretty significant margin in the national polls, and I’m beating Hillary. And so we should expect liberal Democrats to continue echoing Donald’s attacks," Cruz said.

Speaking on NBC News after President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday, Cruz said that people attacking him is a sign of his strength.

"Four weeks ago, just about every Republican candidate in the field was attacking Donald Trump. Today, just about every Republican candidate is attacking me. I think that suggests maybe something has changed in the race," he said.

Cruz also responded to Obama's implicit criticism of him during the address, when the president called out Cruz's pledge to "carpet bomb" the Islamic State.

"I will apologize to nobody for my commitment to kill the terrorists," Cruz said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ain-and-again/

"Laurence Tribe is a liberal Democratic activist. He is a hard-core Hillary Clinton supporter," Cruz told Hewitt on Tuesday. "And suddenly, Hillary Clinton supporters are rushing out to support Donald Trump’s attacks directed at me. And it starts to make you think, gosh, why are Hillary’s strongest supporters trying to prop up Donald Trump?"

Probably because Trump is a natural born citizen under Article II.

"you must not only be born on U.S. soil, but have two parents born on U.S. soil,” Cruz continued.

“Under that theory, not only would I be disqualified, Marco Rubio would be disqualified, Bobby Jindal would be disqualified, and interestingly enough, Donald J. Trump would be disqualified because Donald's mother was born in Scotland,” Cruz said, referring to two other GOP presidential contenders.

http://www.alipac.us/f9/cruz-brings-...-fight-327436/

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

"you must not only be born on U.S. soil, but have two parents born on U.S. soil,” Cruz continued.

“Under that theory, not only would I be disqualified, Marco Rubio would be disqualified, Bobby Jindal would be disqualified, and interestingly enough, Donald J. Trump would be disqualified because Donald's mother was born in Scotland,” Cruz said, referring to two other GOP presidential contenders.

http://www.alipac.us/f9/cruz-brings-...-fight-327436/

No, that's wrong. The rule is born on US soil to 2 US citizens (natural born or naturalized). The Constitution allows children born in the US to 2 citizen parents, both naturalized, to run for President and Vice President. In Trump's case, one parent was a natural born citizen and the other a naturalized citizen. Neither parents must be a natural born citizen, they just have to be citizens. In Cruz's case, he wasn't born on US soil and 1 parent was definitely not a US citizen. The father could have been, had he wanted to be. He was in the US for years and years, but instead of becoming a US citizen, he chose to run off to Canada during the Vietnam War.

But keep this distortion of our Constitution by Ted Cruz in mind, it has been his long-standing trait to redefine the law to suit his own personal situation. He is one of the most dishonest politicians in the game today, in my opinion.

Judy wrote:

But keep this distortion of our Constitution by Ted Cruz in mind, it has been his long-standing trait to redefine the law to suit his own personal situation. He is one of the most dishonest politicians in the game today, in my opinion.

There is no distortion here and Ted Cruz is not one of the most dishonest politicians in the game today. There, that's my opinion. Now, in the end, let's see if our opinions matter one iota.