![]() ![]() senator from Texas who was campaigning in nearby New Hampshire Friday in advance of Tuesday’s primary election there, his citizenship is settled law. So I’m at least open to the view that Cruz should be deemed eligible under an expanded understanding of the ‘natural born citizen’ clause.”įor Cruz, a U.S. “As an unapologetic living constitutionalist,” said Tribe, “I’m someone who believes that constitutional terms of art, like ‘natural born citizen,’ can be flexible enough to accommodate changing national values, experiences, and practices. Gore during the dispute over the 2000 presidential election. A self-described liberal, Tribe represented Democratic candidate Al Gore in Bush v. Tribe said he’d be open to interpretations allowing a flexible reading of the “natural born citizen” clause. immigration law in 1970, he automatically became an American because his mother was one. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer Countering Tribe was Jack Balkin, a constitutional law professor from Yale, who said Cruz is a “natural born citizen” because under U.S. Tribe and Balkin did agree that cogent arguments could be made both in favor of and against Cruz’s eligibility by using different interpretations of the Constitution and existing laws. ![]() citizen and has established residency before your birth, you become automatically a U.S. “The law in 1970 was that if one of your parents was a U.S. “The question is: What was the law in 1970 when Cruz was born?” said Balkin. The law grants birthright citizenship to a child born overseas if one parent is a U.S. immigration law in 1970, he automatically became an American because his mother was one. citizens, parents who had been deployed to the Panama Canal Zone by the military to serve the country.”īut for Jack Balkin, a constitutional law professor at Yale University, Cruz is a “natural born citizen” because under U.S. “And unlike Cruz, McCain was born to two U.S. citizen at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and former presidential candidate John McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone when it was under U.S. He compared Cruz to Alexander Hamilton, a founding father who was born in Nevis, but qualified as a U.S. For Tribe, according to this definition, Cruz does not qualify. ![]() law was based, a “natural born citizen” would be someone born on American soil. Under English common law, upon which U.S. The crux of the matter is that the Constitution, in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5, states that “no person except a natural born citizen” can be president. “Cruz claims that the narrow, historical meaning of the Constitution is literal, except when it comes to the ‘natural born citizen’ clause,” said Tribe, who taught Cruz when he was a student at HLS in 1994. ![]() Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law, who teaches at HLS, argued that Cruz is ineligible to hold the presidency, using what he called Cruz’s own strict interpretation of the Constitution. But in the background, the controversy over his birthplace and his eligibility for the nation’s highest office simmered on.Īt the forum “Is Ted Cruz Eligible to Be President?” held Friday at Wasserstein Hall in Harvard Law School (HLS), two constitutional scholars debated whether Cruz’s birth in Calgary, Alberta, to a Cuban father and an American mother disqualifies him to serve as president. With his surprising victory in the Iowa caucuses last Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz solidified his status near the top of the GOP field. ![]()
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