'Natural-born'
doubt: Law prof takes shot at Cruz, Rush Limbaugh defends Ted: 'It's settled. Deal with it!', by
Douglas Ernst, 1/11/16, WND
A constitutional law
professor at Fordham University says U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s “natural-born
citizen” claim only works if he ironically adopts an interpretation of the U.S.
Constitution favored by liberals.
Thomas Lee of Fordham
Law School wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times on Sunday saying the Texas Republican must use
a “living Constitution” theory to convince voters he is eligible to be
commander in chief. Cruz considers himself an originalist.
Lee said there are two
principles an originalist must use to determine whether or not a person is a
natural-born citizen. U.S. Jus soli, or the
law of soil: A child was a citizen of the sovereign who ruled the land where he
or she was born. Jus sanguinis, or the
law of blood: A child’s citizenship was determined by the parents’ allegiance,
regardless of place of birth. The law of blood would have applied to the
father’s place of birth in 1788.
The professor said that
only by allowing modern cultural norms to influence his reading of the
Constitution, as a “living Constitutionalist” would do, can Cruz deflect
“birther”- type attacks on his presidential eligibility.
“It’s a neat irony: The
most conservative constitutional interpreters must find Cruz ineligible to be
president,” Lee wrote. “Liberals must grin and bear him. Cruz himself purports
to embrace originalism as the correct view of the Constitution. To be faithful
to his understanding of what the Constitution means, the senator may have to
disqualify himself.”
Cruz has outright
rejected such attacks since Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump
brought them up Jan. 5.
“The very first Congress
defined the child of a U.S. citizen born abroad as a natural-born citizen. And
by the way, many of those members of the first Congress were framers at the
constitutional convention,” Cruz told CNN on his campaign bus Jan. 8. “At the end of the
day this is a non-issue.”The senator reiterated
that claim Sunday during CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“The substance of the
issue is clear and straightforward. As a legal matter, the Constitution and
federal law are clear that the child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a
natural-born citizen,” Cruz said.
Cruz’s mother, Eleanor
Darragh, was born in the state of Delaware on Nov. 23, 1934. His
father, Rafael, was born in Cuba. Cruz himself was born in Calgary, Canada, on
Dec. 22, 1970, but renounced his dual citizenship with Canada in 2014.
Trump maintains that
Democrats will take Cruz to court if he wins the Republican presidential
nomination.
“I’d hate to see
something like that get in his way,” Trump told the Washington Post Jan. 5.
“But a lot of people are talking about it and I know that even some states are
looking at it very strongly, the fact that he was born in Canada and he has had
a double passport.”
Conservative radio hosts
Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh have repeatedly criticized attacks on Cruz’s
eligibility.
“Cruz’s mother is an
American citizen, was an American citizen when she gave birth to Cruz, and is,
in fact, Cruz’s mother. Seems fairly simple,” Levin wrote on his Facebook page
Jan. 7. “Not only that, American citizens give birth to American citizens,
whether here or abroad. That’s not only common sense, it is the law. And think
about it for a moment – if you follow their stupid argument, babies born of American
citizens serving abroad in our military would be non-naturalized citizens
ineligible to run for president. That’s stupid.”
Rush Limbaugh was
equally blunt on Monday, telling a caller, “It’s settled. Cruz’s mother was a
citizen. Therefore, he is. Deal with it!”
“You can sit there all
day long and try to tell Ted Cruz is not a citizen, and you’re wrong! I don’t
care what you’re citing or sourcing. If it were true, Cruz would be out!”
In the wake of a new
poll showing Trump has retaken the lead from Cruz in Iowa, Limbaugh said:
“Trump is gonna think that what has bumped him back in the lead here [in Iowa]
is focusing on Cruz’s citizenship, his eligibility. So you can expect Trump to
double-down on this now. My guess anyway. … And all eyes will be on Cruz to see
how he plans to deal with it.”
Limbaugh said earlier in
the show that “natural-born citizen” was not defined in the U.S. Constitution.
A Quinnipiac University
poll released Monday shows Trump leading Cruz by 2 percentage points in Iowa,
the Hill reported.
Trump leads his Republican
opponents with 31 percent support compared to Cruz’s 29 percent. Quinnipiac
questioned 602 likely Republican caucus goers in Iowa between Jan. 5-10. The
survey’s margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Comments
Thomas Lee (Fordham)
agrees with Publius Hulda that both parents need to be citizens. I think they are right. I think Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin disagree
because the Democrats got away with running Obama, so why shouldn’t the
Republicans get a pass on Cruz. Nobody
pulled the Democrats’ “license” to practiced politics because they perpetrated
a fraud by selecting Obama. Not one of
the 50 Secretaries of State got it right in 2008 and 2012. Suits were filed, but State Officers scuttled
them. It may all be academic because it
looks like “the Donald” will be the GOP nominee.
If Congress had done
their job, they would have passed Bills clarifying this by defining “natural
born citizen” decades ago. They also need to define “born” to get rid of the
anchor baby practice and define “life” beginning at conception to end legal
abortion. They need to define “natural
born” to avoid electing another Obama.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA
Tea Party Leader
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