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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHarvard law professor: Ted Cruz’s eligibility to be president is ‘murky and unsettled’
The legal and constitutional issues around qualification for the presidency on grounds of US citizenship are murky and unsettled, according to the scholar cited by Donald Trump in his recent attacks on Ted Cruz .
Related: Ted Cruz insists he is a natural-born citizen after new Donald Trump attack
Trump has sought to cast doubt on whether the senator, who was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father, is a natural-born US citizen. In doing so he has referred to the work and words of Laurence Tribe , perhaps the most respected liberal law professor in the country.
Tribe taught both Cruz and Barack Obama at Harvard Law School. He also advised Al Gore in the 2000 Florida recount and has advised Obamas campaign organisation.
Despite Sen[ator] Cruzs repeated statements that the legal/constitutional issues around whether hes a natural-born citizen are clear and settled, he told the Guardian by email, the truth is that theyre murky and unsettled.
Tribe has said previously that the question of Cruzs eligibility is unsettled. On Sunday, Trump cited that position in an interview with NBCs Meet the Press, in which he described Tribe as a constitutional expert, one of the true experts.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/harvard-law-professor-ted-cruzs-eligibility-to-be-president-is-murky-and-unsettled/
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)randys1
(16,286 posts)bdwker
(435 posts)leftofcool
(19,460 posts)Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)Which, if she did, by say voting on Canadian elections, would make TC an illegal immigrant and a Dreamer.
That would be just soo sweet!
Unless she formally renounced US citizenship, she's a US citizen. Canada allows dual citizenship, which would allow her to vote in Canadian elections without renouncing her US citizenship.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)And whether she forfeits US citizenship by accepting Canadian citizenship.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Which would kinda indicate the US is not enforcing such a ban, or that such a ban does not exist.
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)that the alleged voter registration was in 1974...four years after Ted Cruz was born.
TeddyR
(2,493 posts)And the question isn't if he's a citizen but whether he's a "natural born citizen." The two aren't the same.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)renunciation of citizenship before US governmental authorities who may or may not grant it. There are thousands of americans who have dual citizenship with other countries and many actually vote in the other country's elections. None of that in any way affects their US citizenship.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)U.S. and Canadian immigration laws allow you to become a citizen of both countries, simultaneously - assuming you qualify to immigrate from one country to the other.
http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/dual-citizenship-united-states-canada.html
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)It's actually very hard to get the US to accept a revocation of citizenship, since people attempt it for tax reasons.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)but does not allow US citizens to even attempt to vote in foreign elections; this is grounds for revocation of citizenship.
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)I just want to hear Cruz deny them...
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)Orrex
(63,224 posts)Publicly outed as having spawned Ted Cruz of all things.
SoLeftIAmRight
(4,883 posts)thanks
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)he was born in this country. But Ted Cruz...wasn't. And not because of a military assignment like McCain, either. Nope, his parents just wanted to live there and wanted to have their kid born there. Why shouldn't this be examined?
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,592 posts)for president or vice president. It would have been a non-issue had the birthers not made such a big deal about Obama's birth.
Since the situation with Cruz is identical to Obama's alleged circumstances (which we know are false -- he was born in Hawaii, USA) the birthers and GOP are faced with making the opposite argument. To do so would mean they would have to retract their arguments against Obama, and if there's one thing we know about conservatives, it's that they never apologize.
As Cruz becomes a bigger threat to Trump we can expect Carrot Top to raise this issue over and over again.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,592 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)If either of your parents was a US citizen, you're a US citizen no matter where you were born.
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)from Birthers 2.0 by spouting facts...cut it out!
RussBLib
(9,035 posts)COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)arcane question about what constitutes a "natural born citizen". You can obviously be a US citizen without being a natural born US citizen (which is what the Constitution requires of a US President).
jeff47
(26,549 posts)when it comes to the constitutional qualifications for President. But throwing out "natural born" people who were not actually located within the US when they were born makes no legal sense, so it's EXTREMELY unlikely that this would happen.
Jim Beard
(2,535 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Tribe is pointing out that Cruz's own beliefs would make him ineligible:
under the kind of judge Cruz says he admires and would appoint to the supreme court an originalist who claims to be bound by the historical meaning of the constitutions terms at the time of their adoption Cruz wouldnt be eligible because the legal principles that prevailed in the 1780s and 90s required that someone be born on US soil to be a natural born citizen.
Tribe added: Even having two US parents wouldnt suffice for a genuine originalist. And having just an American mother, as Cruz did, would clearly have been insufficient at a time that made patrilineal descent decisive.
On the other hand, to the kind of judge that I admire and Cruz abhors a living constitutionalist who believes that the constitutions meaning evolves with the needs of the time Cruz would ironically be eligible because it no longer makes sense to be bound by so narrow and strict a definition.
this is really a delicious catch 22 that Tribe has pointed out, and I hope it gets a lot of publicity....
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)If it means a citizen from birth, as opposed to naturalized, Carnival Cruz is in.
pa28
(6,145 posts)Why not let them spend some time reconciling their own hypocrisy instead of giving them a free pass?
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)of it...
TeamPooka
(24,254 posts)HassleCat
(6,409 posts)The reason Cruz seems to be hiding something is because he is. It's clear he eligible to claim natural born US citizenship, but how he did it is not so clear. It looks to me like his parents failed to submit the required paperwork, and Cruz somehow "magically" got his US passport. Normally, it would require filing a report of a child born to a US citizen while living abroad, and that seems to be missing. There is some suggestion that Cruz's parents skirted or bypassed the usual process, but that is not Cruz's fault, and it doesn't change the facts of his birth. He was born in Canada to a US citizen, making him eligible to be president. I suppose his parents could be criticized, maybe even punished, for whatever they did or failed to do, and it might be grounds for his Republican opponents to manufacture a scandal, which they do so well, but we know he's eligible when all is said and done.
Gothmog
(145,554 posts)I have seen a legal analysis that indicates that it is more likely than not that Carnival Cruz is eligible which analysis is consistent with Tribe's views
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)loyalsister
(13,390 posts)Democrats jumping on this bandwagon is Trumps dream as it validates his claim that it is an inherently bad thing to not be a citizen.