Ted Cruz backers say he's 'natural born'

[RandySF]

It seems like an obscure court case from a dusty old law book, but if Canadian-born Texas Sen. Ted Cruz decides to run for president, you're likely to hear a lot about United States vs. Wong Kim Ark.

In the 1898 case, the Supreme Court voted 6-2 to repudiate the exclusive language of the infamous Dred Scott case and create an expansive definition of the Constitution's "natural-born citizen" clause.

That's important because the Constitution requires that the president be a natural-born citizen - and Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1970.

Cruz, who is being urged to run for president in 2016 by some conservative activists, argues that he is a natural-born citizen because his mother was an American citizen. His father, now a naturalized American, was born in Cuba.





http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Ted-Cruz-backers-say-he-s-natural-born-4550395.php#ixzz2UXCSc07T

[LonePirate]

1. Yet these same people think Obama is a Kenyan national.

As usual, it is always best not to follow right wing logic.

[treestar]

44. My first thought too

Because of the Cuban father, Cruz is not a natural born citizen either, if they applied their arguments the same way. But why stay consistent when Republican?

[BlueCaliDem]

53. Yep. But Cruz has the right skin color so of course he's a natural born American!

That said, I believe he has to be born on American soil in order to be president of the United States. You know? Like Obama.

[Tx4obama]

2. The fact remains that Cruz was 'born' in CANADA :)

Obama was born in Hawaii, USA and the Republicans went nuts - LOL

[arcane1]

3. Show us the birth certificate, Ted.

If it doesn't say "USA" then too bad.

[TheDebbieDee]

13. Don't you mean, "Show us the birf cerfiticat!"

And it better not say "Cerfiticat of live birf" either.

[sad-cafe]

26. it has to be the "wet Ink" one

that is the queen nuts newest saying

[Arkana]

58. BIRF CERTIFICAT WHERE TED WHERE

[NCLefty]

4. I'm already making my birther protest signs.

*uncaps his black marker and takes a long whiff................*

[Cirque du So-What]

5. It'll take more than that

to lower your IQ by enough points to make a decent 'birther' sign.

[SummerSnow]

59. Make sure that sign has misspelled words too.

[TexasTowelie]

6. Where is Orly Taitz when you need her?

[div style="width:50%;"]

[Bluzmann57]

7. He's a natural born loony tune

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. I was born in a foreign country to an American citizen mother after 1960: I am "natural born"

And it was neither a military installation nor an embassy or State Department installation. I received an "American citizen born abroad" birth certificate from the US Embassy within 6 weeks of my birth. I am looking at it right now, as a matter of fact.

I really don't want to see imbecile lefty truthers on this. He is natural born.

[TheDebbieDee]

14. He and you both maybe American citizens born abroad, but you are NOT natural-born.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. False

We are American citizens at the moment of our birth aka natural born. You are simply and totally incorrect.

[former9thward]

23. You are wrong.

It is settled law that if you born to an American citizen you are 'natural born' no matter where on this earth you happened to be delivered.

[arcane1]

15. It's just rich because the idiot birthers insisted that being born in Kenya to a US citizen...

meant that person is not qualified to be president. To support Cruz running, they all have to do a complete 180 and say that the whole birther movement was based on bs

[IdaBriggs]

38. Prove that you were born, please.

After all, just because your mother SAID she gave birth to you doesn't mean that you really aren't an ALIEN LIFE FORM SECRETLY CONSPIRING TO DESTROY OUR PLANET WITH LEFTIST COMMIE ANTI-AMERICAN TIME TRAVELING SECRET GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY OLIVE GARDEN EATING CIRCUMCISED PITBULL LOVING LIBERAL STUFF!!!

I demand answers, dammit! Prove your humanity FIRST, and then we will discuss whether you are "american enough" for the Republicans!!!

[treestar]

49. lol

And we want to see his MOTHER'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE and his SCHOOL RECORDS! And how come no one has ever heard of him before this? Huh?

[WinkyDink]

45. You aren't running for President. It's absurd to say someone born on foreign soil is a "natural-born

American"!

[alcibiades_mystery]

56. You're wrong

It is not only NOT absurd, it is the law. You simply don't understand the law or the term.

[arely staircase]

9. he is right, unfortunately

if one of his parents is American, he is. my daughter was born in mexico. her mother is a Mexican citizen and the embassy in mexico recognized her as an "American born abroad" I have the paper to prove it. she is eligible to run for president.

[cascadiance]

19. I was born of two Americans in Indonesia...

I don't think Orly Taitz and her crowd would let me run, even if I'm technically "eligible"...

Certainly didn't stop them when one of Obama's parents was *AMERICAN* and they were uptight that he was either born there or in Kenya according to them...

Of course, they don't care if John McCain was likely not even born on a military base in Panama either, which would open up questions about him as well. There hasn't been a printed record of him being born on that military base when some people looked in to it, which might have given him an "excuse" that perhaps Obama didn't have.

[arely staircase]

21. you can be my daughter's running mate

[kysrsoze]

52. I still don't get why anybody cares. Let them run this asshole. He's going to LOSE BIG!

[arely staircase]

63. he won't make it through the primary

the mouth breathers will love him but then the money bags will step in and pick a more seemingly at least moderate like they have done the last two presidential elections. He's Michele Bachman (dude version).

[RedCappedBandit]

10. Well, his mother is a citizen.

[IggleDoer]

16. Where's his mother's birth certificate?..... The long form

N/T

[Javaman]

62. Bigger question...

why was she in Canada? Visiting or Working?

[Downwinder]

11. Sure it wasn't c-section?

[msanthrope]

28. Another MacDuff? nt

[hrmjustin]

12. It is going to be interesting to see the reaction of the right.

[Buzz Clik]

17. Can we do a DNA check...

... to ensure he's human?

Seems like a logical first step.

[cascadiance]

18. Maybe if he runs, then Jennifer Granholm could run against him!

He just better not have a car elevator, or Granholm can recycle a good line from the convention last year.

[Shrike47]

20. It seems to me natural-born might mean not adopted.

But I do love the wing nut inconsistency.

[WinkyDink]

46. No, that isn't at all what the Constitution means.

[Loudly]

24. Hatched.

[Initech]

25. He's a natural born idiot?

[mainstreetonce]

27. Isn't the question

Was he naturalized or was he a citizen from birth?

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. He was born to an American parent

He is a citizen at birth.

[mainstreetonce]

31. So therefore he is eligible

That is the way I understand the law.

[Aerows]

34. End of story

I don't like him, but none of that makes him unable to be POTUS. His quality of being a bat shit crazy should make him ineligible for President, but not his citizenship.

[treestar]

51. Right though right wingers have claimed

some of the saner ones, that the decision has never really been made and that the courts ought to decide it. In this case, it could be seen as a grey area. The reason Orly Taitz's cases never go anywhere is that Obama was born in the U.S. With this, the cases might actually get heard on the issue.

[Nye Bevan]

29. If an American woman gives birth while on vacation abroad, should her baby be ineligible

for the Presidency? The answer is no. Both this baby and Ted Cruz are considered "natural born" as they were US citizens from the moment of their birth.

[Aerows]

33. I know you argued

the same position for Obama when the subject came up.

[Nye Bevan]

36. Huh?

I don't think I ever posted on that ridiculous non-issue. Perhaps you are thinking of someone else?

[Aerows]

37. I was busy agreeing with you

Why are you upset about that?

[Nye Bevan]

39. Not upset. I just don't remember posting on that issue (nt)

[Aerows]

40. Fair enough n/t

[WinkyDink]

48. No. "US citizen" is insufficient, else the Constitution authors would not have INCLUDED "natural-

born"!

[Nye Bevan]

50. The current interpretation of "natural born" is "US citizen at birth"

as opposed to someone who became a naturalized citizen later.

[Aerows]

32. He's a Fundamentalist

Reasoning with a Fundamentalist is like trying to make rational sense of a person in the throws of abject drug addiction - they are just too out of it to have any sense, right, wrong or otherwise. They lose their minds and in their convoluted world, they are the only beings with the answers, the only beings that are right, and the only beings that are righteous.

It's a shame we have such people in the legislator role for our country. They are as dangerous as a heroin addict making laws.

[backscatter712]

35. I want to see his birth certificate!

I'm not convinced he's part of a Cuban Communist plot to infiltrate the government!

[SoCalDem]

41. Of course they would.. They know that dems won't waste time doing what THEY did

Someday, we DO need a total SCOTUS ruling, since the world is getting smaller every day.. The 2nd amendment apparently needs NO further interpretation, even though it is quite "wiggly"..

The founders wanted natural born AKA born HERE because they feared that someone born in the UK might someday start up a monarchy. They fully intended that only people actually born here could rule, even though the others could still become citizens...just not ruling citizens.

As with much in the constitution, if the republicans read it a certain way,m THAT automatically becomes the ONLY way it can be interpreted.

In this day and age, we need to allow ANYONE (naturalized as well) to be eligible to run for any office ...including the presidency, BUT we must have a definitive ruling so that NO ONE can ever do what the Tea Bag folks did for THREE YEARS...

[LostOne4Ever]

42. You are wrong

Someone as bat-shit insane as he is had to be born on a completely different planet.

Uranus perhaps?

[WinkyDink]

43. No. He is a Canadian-born person of dual citizenship. Does NOT fit the Constitution.

Why the HELL otherwise would Kenya have been brought up, when everyone knows Obama's mother was American?

Why the HELL otherwise would McCain have made clear he was born on American territory in Panama, when everyone knows his parents were American?

The Founding Fathers wanted NO QUESTION OF LOYALTIES.

[AndyA]

54. Hypocrites.

Cruz is an alien. He is not a natural born American.

Hopefully, the Mother Ship will come back some day to take him back where he came from, along with Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Louie Gohmert, Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Jim Inhofe, Tom Coburn, Darrell Issa, Antonin Scalia, etc., etc., etc.

They're gonna need to send the BIG Mother Ship, they've left a lot of trash here over the years.

[Tippy]

55. I would not at all be suprised to see him run...they will just change the rules.Tea/ Publicans

are getting really good at that and we know The Bought and Paid for SCOTUS will rubber stamp it..

[Orsino]

57. McCain already settled this.

A presidential candidate need not be born within the US borders, unless it was in a Soviet bloc country like Hawaii.

[dembotoz]

60. natural born killers---oh please please run --this would be SO much fun

[Beacool]

61. Ted Cruz is one person that has brought bipartisanship to the Senate.

He's one guy they all can agree on: they hate him. He's a rude, arrogant jerk who doesn't show respect to his colleagues.

Let him run for president, his major hurdle is not having been born in Canada, it's being a prick.