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Is Ted Cruz, born in Canada, eligible to run for president?
- Thread starter Crabtownboy
- Start date
Salty, I am not sure that I understand what voting in Puerto Rico has to do with American citizenship?
The US Constitution says, as you know:
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.
I think that under the US Constitution, US Senator Cruz is eligible.
Do you think that the term Resident in the US Constitution means only within 50 states?
Residents of Puerto Rico are not able to vote for President of the United States - even though they are considered Americans.
I assume that it is because Puerto Rico is a commonwealth and not a state and therefore the people in the island of Puerto Rico are not able to vote in spite of their having been granted American citizenship, as you linked. They became affiliated with this country as a result of the Spanish-American war, as you know. Puerto Ricans became very unpopular when some of them attempted to assassinate President Truman.
Mass, PA, KY VA are also Commonwealths.
How ironic that CTB seems to forget that it was Hillary Clinton that started the whole Obama birther thing!!!
Yes, of course Dems/liberals are racist.
After they only hate Cruz because he is Hispanic. :laugh:
That's excellent, targus.
We will all watch the attacks on Cruz eventually get to his race. They will not be able to help themselves. Same for Jindal.
We will all watch the attacks on Cruz eventually get to his race. They will not be able to help themselves. Same for Jindal.
My goodness, I forgot about that.
Only because they have not put up a Hispanic Presidential candidate yet.
poncho
Well-Known Member
http://www.baptistboard.com/showpost.php?p=2204067&postcount=9
Where he was born doesn't matter so much as the status of his parents citizenship at the time of his birth. Were his parents both US citizens at the time of his birth?
Obama's parents weren't. So Obama was born in Hawaii, big deal, doesn't matter his father was a British subject. Not a US citizen.
If we go by the definition the supreme court has used to decide what a "natural born citizen" is. Obama is not qualified to hold the office of POTUS.
If we go by what congress and "PolitFact.com" (who's in depth researchers evidently never bothered to check Supreme Court cases) decides then anything goes. Supreme Court decisions and the law doesn't mean much to congress and PolitFact.com, unless YOU or I violate the law.
4 SUPREME COURT CASES DEFINE 'NATURAL BORN CITIZEN'
Finally it should be noted, that to define a term is to indicate the category or class of things which it signifies. In this sense, the Supreme Court of the United States has never applied the term “natural born citizen” to any other category than “those born in the country of parents who are citizens thereof”.
Hence every U.S. Citizen must accept this definition or categorical designation, and fulfil his constitutional duties accordingly. No member of Congress, no judge of the Federal Judiciary, no elected or appointed official in Federal or State government has the right to use any other definition; and if he does, he is acting unlawfully, because unconstitutionally.
http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/government/us_constitution/news.php?q=1308252582
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Crabby, are you really trying to convince the Ponch?
Wouldn't it be easier to just come join me? :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead:
poncho
Well-Known Member
We're not talking about just "any" child. We're talking about the one running for POTUS.
The framers of the constitution made a special rule for that one child. They actually wrote it into law. That law says only a "natural born citizen" is qualified to hold the office of POTUS.
The Supreme Court defined the conditions that makes one a "natural born citizen" in four court cases not just one but four.
According to another Supreme Court case Marbury vs Madison no law trumps the U'S Constitution.
The Birthright Citizenship Act, H.R. 140, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act - not the Constitution - to consider a person born in the United States "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States for citizenship at birth purposes if the person is born in the United States of parents, one of whom is: (1) a U.S. citizen or national; (2) a lawful permanent resident alien whose residence is in the United States; or (3) an alien performing active service in the U.S. Armed Forces.
https://www.numbersusa.com/solutions/reform-birthright-citizenship
Sorry, your "law" doesn't apply here.
But, as I said before none of this matters because congress and the executive only follow the laws they choose to follow. If they don't like the law or the checks the constitution puts on their legal authority they ignore them and do as they please. Sometimes they will put forward dubious excuses to over step their legal authority and violate the law (constitution) case in point the "patriot acts" and the NDAA.
The govt basically said let us do away with the fourth and fifth amendments or the "terrorists" will get you. And all the frightened little sheople said Amen!
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Only two types of citizens. Natural born and naturalized. Obama, McCain, and Cruz are all Natural born, IE, citizens at birth due to either being born in the US, or having derivative citizenship through a citizen parent at the time of birth. Obama has 2 (born in US and born of a citizen parent). McCain and Cruz only have 1 (born of a citizen parent) but McCain may have two. The Canal Zone was an "unorganized territory" also known as an "insular area."
That creates a problem for McCain on the first count. In 1901 the US Supreme Court had ruled in Downes v. Bidwell that unincorporated territories are not the United States. On July 28, 1904, Controller of the Treasury Robert Tracewell stated, "While the general spirit and purpose of the Constitution is applicable to the zone, that domain is not a part of the United States within the full meaning of the Constitution and laws of the country." The Supreme Court held in 1905 in Rasmussen v. United States that the full Constitution only applies for incorporated territories of the United States.
With the ruling of 1905, persons born in the Canal Zone became US nationals, not full citizens. This problem was resolved when Congress passed legislation in 1937 that corrected the matter. Unfortunately McCain was born in 1936, just before the law was passed.
They can't vote for President because the President is elected by the electoral college which only states have.
They can't vote for representatives or senators because only states elect representatives and senators.
If they move to the US they can vote as they are full citizens.
But keep in mind that McCain's father was on an official tour of duty in the Canal Zone.
It doesn't matter. His status as a natural born citizen is derivative from the citizen status of his parents.
Had his parents not been citizens, and he was born in the Canal Zone between 1905 and 1937, he would not have been a natural born citizen. He would have been a US national. A US national has permanent residency privileges but is not a citizen so they cannot vote or hold public office.
A US national can apply for citizenship through naturalization. If the parents are naturalized prior to the minor US national's 14th birthday citizenship is automatic.
poncho
Well-Known Member
Of course none of this matters. If the democrat's candidate was born in Cuba to British parents and the republican's candidate was born in the UK to Cuban parents there would be a thousand and one talking head experts on TV telling us that anyone who moves here before the age of 35 is qualified to be POTUS.
Half of us would believe them. They're the network experts so they must know what they're talking about. And half of us would yawn and say who cares?
Half of us would believe them. They're the network experts so they must know what they're talking about. And half of us would yawn and say who cares?
Everyone here seems to forget that it was the Democrats that put this question totally to rest for McCain six years ago.