Illinois Board of Elections: of course Cruz is a natural-born citizen…
…and don’t bother us anymore with this nonsense.
Well, that’s not a direct quote. But here:
The GOP senator has had his presidential bid challenged in recent months by Iowa GOP runner-up Donald Trump, who claimed Cruz’s Canadian birthplace disqualifies him from being president. Two Illinois objectors, Lawrence Joyce and Williams Graham, also agreed that Cruz’s citizenship did not meet guidelines in the Article II of the Constitution. But the board of elections disagreed and cleared Cruz’s name for the March 15 primary.
“The Candidate is a natural born citizen by virtue of being born in Canada to his mother who was a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth,” the board said, explaining Cruz met the criteria because he “did not have to take any steps or go through a naturalization process at some point after birth.”…
A ballot commission in New Hampshire also ruled in favor of Cruz in January, but the language in Monday’s decision by the Illinois board took a stronger tone than the previous ruling, warning other skeptics, “Further discussion on this issue is unnecessary.”
Ah, but you will see further discussion—further ignorant and/or stupid and/or mendacious discussion—on various comment threads all over the blogosphere. What you will not see is that lawsuit by Trump to seek a declaratory judgment on it, because he doesn’t have standing and that’s not the proper procedure. The sort of method described here, a citizen of a state challenging a state’s Election Board from putting a candidate’s name on the ballot, is the proper procedure. And it’s not going to work, and Trump knows that. If he doesn’t know it, he’s ignorant and/or stupid (or his lawyers are, which I deeply doubt). If neither of those, that leaves mendacious. Take your pick, or you can have all three.
And no, “the Democrats” can’t do it, either. I already covered much of this in a previous post, but in case you didn’t see it, please take another look.
To quote a wise little girl orphaned by aliens in a famous science fiction movie: “It won’t make any difference.” For the fanatic Trumpers, and even The Donald Himself, it’s just another knife to stick in a top rival who’s standing in the way of his Uranus-sized ego – truth, schmuth, they don’t care.
I see him running the government with exactly the same level of honor, integrity, honesty, principles and ethics.
Trump is said to be an alpha by some of his net backers. Does an alpha talk about something another alpha can do, but isn’t brave enough do it himself, Trump style?
I predict that Trump will continue to cast aspersions and sow doubts regarding Cruz’s eligibility in his stump speeches. I think he knows it’s a non-starter but it fits his style of personal attacks on his opponents. There’s nothing else Trump can pin on Cruz, other than the “nasty guy nobody likes” insult. Plus Trump got a lot of mileage out of his birther crusade against Obama, and he doesn’t really know how to campaign any other way. Unless he suddenly decides to spend less time attacking opponents and more time on policy specifics on key issues. But as Neo likes to say, I am not going to sit on a hot stove waiting for that to happen 😉
First, I think Cruz is a great senator. That having been said, he is not a natural born citizen as the founding fathers knew the term to mean. I suggest reading the Law Of Nations written by Vattel, published in 1758 which was used as a reference document by the founding fathers when they wrote the Constitution. The definition of natural born citizen is found in Book one, Chapter XIX section 212 as follows;
212. Citizens and natives.
The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights. The society is supposed to desire this, in consequence of what it owes to its own preservation; and it is presumed, as matter of course, that each citizen, on entering into society, reserves to his children the right of becoming members of it. The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; and these become true citizens merely by their tacit consent. We shall soon see whether, on their coming to the years of discretion, they may renounce their right, and what they owe to the society in which they were born. I say, that, in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country
The USSC also addressed this in Minor v. Happersett. While the case did not involve per say the issue of natural born citizens, the court did state the following:
“The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners. Some authorities go further and include as citizens children born within the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of their [88 U.S. 162, 168] parents. As to this class there have been doubts, but never as to the first. For the purposes of this case it is not necessary to solve these doubts. It is sufficient for everything we have now to consider that all children born of citizen parents within the jurisdiction are themselves citizens.”
Notice that in both cases the one thing that is the same is being born in the jurisdiction. The difference between a born citizen and a natural born citizen is that to be a natural born citizen one must have two parents that are US citizens at the time of ones birth.
This requirement makes Cruz, Rubio, and Obama ineligible to hold the office of President.
John Jay, first Chief justice of the USSC wrote a letter to George Washington recommending that the Commander in Chief must be a natural born citizen.
Well, he could attack Cruz’s nose, which my sister claims looks too much like a penis for her to support his candidacy. She just can’t abide the thought of seeing that proboscis for so many years. Yes, she does have some Trumper tendencies…
remember, you read it here first.
Gary Adler:
Give it a frigging rest already
You’re a first-time commenter here, I see. So whether you’re a long-time reader/lurker or what one might call a Cruz-birther troll, you’re wrong. See this, and about 10,000 other rational discussions of the matter.
One might wonder what business a non-natural-born nor non-naturalized non-citizen has being a “a great Senator”. Which, none, y’ld be forgiven for thinking.
Lurch:
I think your sister may need some help.
And I wonder: what has her experience with male genitalia been? That is one of the oddest things I’ve ever heard.
You’d have to meet my sister, Neo. you would like her. But she has not been had the most success in that realm, for sure.
I can’t say I have ever looked at Cruz’s nose and thought of another appendage. Moving forward, after reading this thread, I hope that holds true :-l
But that said, it’s unfortunate but Cruz’s face is NOT one of his selling points. As his campaign continues, I think he needs to take every opportunity to appear next to his bright and attractive wife and daughters. They make him look more better, frankly. And looks matter.
I heard Christie crack recently that he likes campaigning in bars, because he becomes more attractive and charming when people are drinking.
Better, not “more better.” Meant to delete that!
CV:
I actually think Christie is quite charming and attractive, particularly from the neck up. And I don’t even drink (maybe that shows why I don’t).
As for Cruz’s face, there is something “off” about him. I actually feel the same way about Trump’s face—very “off,” particularly some of his expressions of pout and/or scowl. But that’s not the way I judge candidates. However, I agree it’s a factor in elections.
A lot of people have pointed out that Cruz has a resemblance to Joe McCarthy. I don’t see it at all, but he certainly looks like Joe McCarthy more than his nose looks like a penis (and anyone who hasn’t been following Lurch’s earlier remark in this thread will think I’ve gone nuts—to coin a phrase—so here’s a link).
Lurch might suggest to his sister (winking the while) that she Trumperize her description with the simple substitution “looks like a schlong”. Less the stilty Latin, more the earthy Yiddish.
Gary – I agree that we should always consider what the Founding Fathers thought of the words they used in order to understand the words’ meaning. The following is the text of “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization” (March 26, 1790):
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof on application to any common law Court of record in any one of the States wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least, and making proof to the satisfaction of such Court that he is a person of good character, and taking the oath or affirmation prescribed by law to support the Constitution of the United States, which Oath or Affirmation such Court shall administer, and the Clerk of such Court shall record such Application, and the proceedings thereon; and thereupon such person shall be considered as a Citizen of the United States. And the children of such person so naturalized, dwelling within the United States, being under the age of twenty one years at the time of such naturalization, shall also be considered as citizens of the United States. And 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: Provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States: Provided also, that no person heretofore proscribed by any States, shall be admitted a citizen as aforesaid, except by an Act of the Legislature of the State in which such person was proscribed.
Neo,
I agree that Christie can be very charming. I find self-deprecating humor to be charming also 🙂
If Cruz is the nominee, I predict we will hear an endless parade of insults and snark about his looks and nerdy debate-captain demeanor. Leftists didn’t really use this line of attack with Romney, who is a very good-looking guy, but they won’t be able to resist attempting to personalize and polarize the not-so-good-looking Cruz.
The Cruz-Carson issue came about for two reasons, first Carson’s statement could easily be misunderstood. With the NH primary 7 days away who flies 1,000 in the wrong direction to see the spouse and pick up a change of clothes? I can guarantee you that Cruz was in NH on February 2 in time for breakfast, as I am sure everyone in the race was with the exception of Carson.
Secondly, Cruz has a very effective team and knows how to operate one of those ‘mysterious’ ground games. They called all of their caucus captains to inform them of what they interpreted to be an end to Carson’s campaign. Unfortunately for Trump, lacking a ground game, did not have caucus captains all across the state. Instead he relied on his fans to show up and speak or not speak for him.
At my caucus a Trump supporter said (and I wrote it down word for word) “I support Donald Trump because he’s the greatest businessman alive and he will balance the budget and wipe away the national debt in four years.” He was totally sincere. I whipered to a fellow Cruz voter, “Does this mean the country will file for bankruptcy four times and default on the national debt?”
I’ll be the first to say it: Compared to Bernie, Hillary or Trump, Cruz is a movie star in terms of looks. Compared to Rubio, not so much – but if looks are going to be a factor, let’s up the honesty level here.
Signed, A Woman Young Enough to Still Notice (KG)
Lurch:
Maybe you could tell your sister to close her eyes and imagine the possibilities of a penis with a tongue right underneath it.
:>)
geokstr,
I think the ladies would prefer the tongue above the penis.
Parker:
Are you only familiar with the missionary position? There is a very easy and enjoyable way to achieve that effect without drastic surgery. Which reminds me of a story:
A sex researcher was conducting a class. They asked how many positions the students knew. A guy in the back row jumped up and waved his hand but they called on several others. “Four”, “Seven”, then they called on the man in the back. “I know 71 positions” he said proudly.
“Wow!”, said the instructor,”I didn’t even know there were that many.” Then he called on a shy young woman in the front row, who said she only knew one. “That’s OK. Describe it for us” said the instructor. Nervously, she responded, “It’s when the woman lies on her back and the man lies down on top of her.”
The guy in the back jumps up and yells “72!”.