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Rand Paul: Court Will Have to Determine Cruz’s Eligibility
Posted On Jan 12 2016
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Libertarian Republican U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul has every incentive to create mischief for Cruz-and he purports to be a principled constitutionalist.
A week after Donald Trump decided to make Ted Cruz’s Canadian birth an issue in the GOP presidential primary race, the issue just won’t seem to go away.
Former Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, who wrote in one of the earliest commentaries on the Constitution, explained the objective for the natural born requirement for president is to “cut[] off all chances for ambitious foreigners, who might otherwise be intriguing for the office; and interpose[] a barrier against those corrupt interferences of foreign governments in executive elections”. The Naturalization Act of 1790 provided that “the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens….”
His mother was born here, she is an American citizen, she lived here for more than a year. He has said he is an American citizen by virtue of his mother’s USA citizenship and has renounced his Canadian citizenship. “She never registered to vote and never applied for Canadian citizenship”. The Texas senator was born in Canada and held dual citizenship papers from both the United States and Canada until about 18 months ago.
It has led others to question Cruz’s eligibility, including Sen.
Senator McCain and GOP presidential rivals Donald Trump and Senator Rand Paul (R-TX) opined last week that this is a legitimate issue.
When asked how Cruz could run for president if he was born in Canada, McCain answered, “I do not know the answer to that”. “That’s different from being born on foreign soil. And our Supreme Court has never addressed the issue”.
For his part, Trump has continued to raise the issue in recent days. I think there is a question. “I don’t think the American people are interested”. “I don’t think it’s illegitimate to look into it”.
