Everyone ready for a President Cruz?
Two bipartisan lawyers formerly of the Justice Department are saying the Canadian-born senator is legally eligible to seek the presidency.
Acting solicitor generals under President Obama and President George W. Bush, Neal Katyal and Paul Clemente, respectively, said as much on the prospective Cruz presidential run in an article for the Harvard Law Review.
The solicitor generals wrote:
There is no question that Senator Cruz has been a citizen from birth and is thus a ‘natural born Citizen’ within the meaning of the Constitution.
Before you start laughing too hard at a Cruz presidency, consider he already has at least one thing in common with President Obama – he has Birthers rallying against him because he was born outside the country, in Canada.
Cruz thrust his birth certificate into the public eye a couple years ago, though. The certificate showed Cruz’s mother was born in Delaware, thereby offering the interpretation that Cruz is a “natural born citizen,” which of course, would make him eligible to run for president.
The article in the Harvard Law Review is titled, “On the Meaning of ‘Natural Born Citizen,’” and attempts to suggest that the interpretation used to consider Cruz a “natural born citizen” was accepted as far back as the early 1700’s. The solicitor generals stated in the article, also, that the Supreme Court has always looked to British common law, as well as the First Congress, when attempting to define the phrase, which is why the interpretation is largely considered “settled.”
The lawyers also wrote:
Both confirm that the original meaning of the phrase ‘natural born Citizen’ includes persons born abroad who are citizens from birth based on the citizenship of a parent.
The lawyers also believe Cruz had “no need to go through naturalization proceedings.” As far as they are concerned, Cruz has always been eligible to run for president – no naturalization process necessary.
With the recent public confirmation and interpretation of the law in his favor, Cruz is mulling over whether or not he will attempt the office. During CPAC, he responded to a question regarding his birth and citizenship on Sean Hannity’s Fox News:
I was born in Calgary. My mother was an American citizen by birth. Under federal law, that made me an American citizen by birth. The Constitution requires that you be a natural-born citizen.
By that answer, it sounds like even Cruz wonders whether he is truly eligible to run for the presidency. Rest assured, however, so long as one lawyer interprets the law in his favor, the office of President of the United States will always be an office Cruz will continue to play to, if not actually run for in the future. Hey, and he has two.
Let’s just all take heart in that a Cruz presidential run has about as much chance as a Palin run. It sure looks like he will try his hand at it, if not in 2016, 2020.
H/T: foxnews.com | Featured image: via Flickr
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