Cruz may not be legally a Senator, much less a Pres. candidate.

[Jim Lane]

149. That's almost certainly right but the exact dates haven't been published AFAIK

First, I think there's no good-faith dispute about Cruz's mother's initial citizenship. She was born in Delaware and neither parent was a diplomat, so she was a citizen at birth.

To transmit citizenship to Cruz, she needs to have lived in the U.S. for ten years before his birth, at least five years of which came after her fourteenth birthday. Cruz was born in 1970. It's known that his mother got an undergraduate degree from Rice sometime in the 1950s. In the information that I know of, there's no indication of her having lived outside the U.S. at any time before that.

I don't know exactly when she moved away and when she returned. It's remotely conceivable that she skipped a grade or two, entered Rice early, live abroad for a year as part of an undergraduate study-abroad program, completed her coursework in less than four years, married right after graduation, etc. Of course, the residency years don't have to be continuous, so she'd also be entitled to count however much time she spent living here after returning from Europe and before moving to Canada (they moved there in 1967).

In sum, you could construct a scenario wherein she couldn't transmit citizenship, but it's virtually certain that she could.

This might come down to the question I mentioned in #141 -- the burden of proof. Even if any sensible person looking at the known facts would conclude that she almost certainly met the requirements, would Cruz be required to prove it? Does his mother still have her utility bills and rent receipts from the 1950s and 1960s to prove where she was? What if she just gives a sworn affidavit? What if she says, "Oh, all right, I'll give you an affidavit," and then dies before she can do so? (There are some instances in law where a party does have to go to the trouble of proving something that's quite obvious and not seriously disputed.) The Constitution doesn't say who has the burden of proof on the eligibility issue, or what sort of evidence is acceptable.