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Ted Cruz is lying about his citizenship status. The question of whether or not he is a 'natural born (American) citizen' is clear.
Moreover, pretending to speak as a self-described experienced Supreme Court clerk regarding an issue of which he is a party is a conflict of interest.
On The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell an interview with professor Sarah Duggin (author with Marry Beth Collins) revealed that an extensive legal study 100 pages long was published in 2005 in the Boston University Law Review. There have been no cases that brought this particular issue or question before the Supreme Court.
This authoritative study concluded, "... the natural born citizenship status of millions of Americans is open to question. 'Natural born citizenship' is absolutely certain only for United States citizens born post state-hood in one of the 50 states, provided that they are not members of Native American tribes recognized by the United States government. To varying degrees, the natural born status of all other United States citizens is suspect."
There is stronger evidence that
clarifies the status.
Mary Brigid McManamon, a
constitutional law professor at Widener University’s Delaware Law School, wrote
in the Washington post, on January 12, 2016,
The Constitution provides that “No person except a natural born Citizen . . . shall be eligible to the Office of President.” The concept of “natural born” comes from common law, and it is that law the Supreme Court has said we must turn to for the concept’s definition. On this subject, common law is clear and unambiguous. The 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone, the preeminent authority on it, declared natural-born citizens are “such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England,” while aliens are “such as are born out of it.” The key to this division is the assumption of allegiance to one’s country of birth. The Americans who drafted the Constitution adopted this principle for the United States. James Madison, known as the “father of the Constitution,” stated, “It is an established maxim that birth is a criterion of allegiance. . . . [And] place is the most certain criterion; it is what applies in the United States.”
The Constitution makes a distinction between "natural born citizen" and "citizen" in its requirements for office of President and the office of Senator
"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5(The Twelfth Amendment extended this requirement to the qualifications for Vice President.)
"No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen."
Article I, Section 3, Clause 3
The President must be a "natural born citizen" but a senator only has to be a "citizen", not a "natural born citizen". This Constitutional distinction can not be altered save by a Constitutional Amendment.
Furthermore, the US Constitution explicitly incorporates English Common Law, to wit:
"In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."
The British were conscripting American (formerly British) sailors claiming “once a British Citizen, always a British Citizen". The right to change citizenship was denied under the doctrine jus soli. This was one factor that led to the war of 1812. The British were refusing to acknowledge prior British Citizens could give up their citizenship and become American citizens.
Our founding fathers lived at this time and place when their citizenship was based on their place of birth, and only the sovereign of that country had the right to change that citizenship. The Declaration of Independence sought to counter the prevailing doctrine. When the founding fathers used the phrase 'natural born citizen' they knew full well that it meant only born on the land that became the United States. Since that time no laws or cases have changed that meaning, except to extend it to any place under the sovereign authority of the country.
'Natural born citizen' [jus soli] has a multi-millenia legal history of
meaning 'born on the land' or soil.
“An early form of partial jus soli dates from Cleisthenes' reforms of ancient Athenian law. It developed further in the Roman world, where citizenship was extended to all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire, especially with the Constitutio Antoniniana (Edict of Caracalla).[3]”
Statutes in England prior to American independence used the phrase "natural born subject".
The Founding Fathers wanted no
monarchy or other royalty in our government or in our society, hence the simple
wording change to "natural born citizen". This incorporates the notion of
jus soli without the connotation of a royal by the word 'subject'.
Free men are not subjects, they are citizens.
Ted Cruz was born on Canadian
soil. Where Ted Cruz was born was not under American sovereignty, he was born
under Canadian sovereignty. According to the English Common Law Incorporated in
both Canadian and American legal systems, Ted Cruz was a natural-born Canadian
citizen, and, according to laws passed in the United States, he is a naturalized
American citizen by birth due to having an American citizen mother.
Because he had an American
citizen mother, he is a naturalized American citizen, not a 'natural born'
American citizen. The issue of naturalized birth American citizenship was
settled by Congress a long time ago. The issue of naturalized by birth to an
American citizen mother citizenship, not natural born citizenship, is so settled
in law and culture that no one questions it. It's been settled by law since
December 23, 1952.
"In general, a Child Born Outside the U.S. is a Citizen at Birth when the Child’s Parents Are Not Married to each other at the Time of Birth...
AND...
IF... The genetic or non-genetic gestational legal mother is a U.S. citizen at the time of birth, and the birth date is after December 23, 1952
AND... The mother had previously been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of at least one year."
INA: ACT 301 - NATIONALS AND CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES AT BIRTH
Sec. 301. [8 U.S.C. 1401] The following shall be nationals and citizens of the
United States at birth:
(g) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling ...
INA: ACT 309 - CHILDREN BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK
Sec. 309. [8 U.S.C. 1409]
(a) The provisions of paragraphs (c), (d), (e), and (g) of section 301, and of
paragraph (2) of section 308, shall apply as of the date of birth to a person
born out of wedlock if ...
(c) Notwithstanding the provision of subsection (a) of this section, a person
born, after December 23, 1952, outside the United States and out of wedlock
shall be held to have acquired at birth the nationality status of his mother, if
the mother had the nationality of the United States at the time of such person's
birth, and if the mother had previously been physically present in the United
States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year.
Note: Legislation does
not have the power to alter or render null and void the distinction
between qualified "natural born citizen" and unqualified "citizen" as
applied to the President and a Senator respectively in the
Constitution. Only a constitutional amendment ratified by the
states or a supreme court decision brought by a candidate with standing
can alter the constitution.
'American soil' has come to mean any land that the United States has Sovereign authority over. The only exceptions to this are two American territories, the residents of which are American Nationals, but not Citizens, and children born to parents working FOR the United States directly, such as in the military or the diplomatic service.
Note: Ted Cruz's mother was born in Wilmington, DE, making her nationality status a citizen national, which Ted Cruz acquired at birth.
The United States legally
recognizes dual citizenship for any country which also recognizes dual
citizenship. But no country recognizes dual natural born citizen citizenship.
Jus soli
applies only to the physical place of birth. There are many countries
today which do not recognize
jus soli, so aliens born on their soil do not automatically get their
citizenship, but that does not endow them with jus soli for their
parents` country.
Natural born citizenship only applies to the country having sovereign authority over the place of birth when that country accepts jus soli. Our Founding Fathers used a term which was very well defined for them. You were a citizen of wherever you were born until your citizenship was revoked by you or your sovereign. Dual-citizenship was not even possible until the late 19th century.
"The Bancroft treaties, also called the Bancroft conventions, were a series of
agreements made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries between the United
States and other countries.[1] They recognized the right of each party's
nationals to become naturalized citizens of the other; and defined circumstances
in which naturalized persons were legally presumed to have abandoned their new
citizenship and resumed their old."
It is very clear based on our
legal history and our current laws that Ted Cruz was not a legal natural born
American citizen. He was in fact a natural-born Canadian citizen. Under the
meaning of the phrase natural born citizen as it was in the founding fathers
days he could not have had dual natural born citizen status. That never was and
and still isn't a possibility historically or legally.
Ted Cruz's status is even more uncertain for a number of factors. He was born outside the United States in Canada. He only had only one American parent. He had Canadian citizenship which he did not renounce until 2012, and became official on May 14, 2014. A case will have to be brought before the court by someone with standing. That would most likely include a competing candidate.
Someone who held loyalty to
another country up until 2 years before running for president is not my idea of someone who would be
faithful to the United States, our principles, our laws, and our customs. His
lack of respect for the Supreme Court showed when he referred to them as 5
un-elected lawyers. Other gibberish he spouts shows a lack of understanding and
respect for our legal system
He was, in fact, a natural born Canadian Citizen, ipso facto, he can not be a natural born American citizen under both Common Law and the distinction in the Constitutional Requirements for the offices of President and Senator.