Texas Lawyer Files Federal ‘Birther’ Suit Against Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz

Schwartz’s suit, which cites a “crescendo” of questions over the matter, was filed on Thursday in federal court in the Southern District of Texas.

As Republican candidate Ted Cruz faces questions over whether he’s a “natural born citizen” – and therefore constitutionally eligible to be president – here’s a look back at another time the question of naturalization became a topic on “Face the Nation” back in 1966, when Michigan Governor George Romney was mulling a possible presidential run.

Cruz also used humor to address Trump’s allegation about his eligibility for the Presidency, replying to Trump’s accusation with a “jump the shark” clip from “Happy Days”.

Cruz, a Harvard-educated lawyer, shot back that “the chances of any litigation proceeding and succeeding on this are zero”. Cruz was born in Canada to an American citizen. “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”, the Constitution reads.

But as flimsy a distraction as this is from more important topics, Trump has stumbled on an issue that, at least theoretically, could put a messy cloud over the campaign.

John Jay, later the first chief justice of the United States, wrote: “the commander in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born citizen”. They did not define the phrase further.

Andrew Cuomo said Friday that Ted Cruz’s comment about “New York values” was divisive and “anti-American”.

Here’s how the issue arose.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday by Newton Boris Schwartz Sr., raises legal uncertainty about whether Cruz qualifies for the constitutional requirement that a president be a “a natural-born citizen” because he was born in Calgary, Alberta.

“As Congress has recognized since the Founding, a person born overseas to a US citizen parent is generally a USA citizen from birth with no need for naturalization”. There is no doubt, Cruz was not born on US soil. And neither candidate is prepared to cede any ground to the other: Trump, often brandishing a Bible and touting the latest surveys, likes to tell audiences that he is doing “great with the evangelicals”. The natural-born status of Sen. Both lawsuits failed on technical grounds.

“All through English history the rule was, you have to have been born in the territory of England”, said McManamon who has a law degree from Cornell University and previously taught at Case Western Reserve University Law School.

Trump has employed this political tactic before, notoriously questioning President Barack Obama’s natural citizenship and demanding to see his long-form birth certificate. “All he has to do is appear in it and he may probably win it. But if he blocks it, showing that he does not want it brought up, for a politician, the last thing I would want to do is block a suit that enables me to declare that I am eligible [to be] president”. The only difference drawn by the Constitution is that only the “natural born” citizen is eligible to be president.