The Next Birther Controversy

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted a story today about the next birther controversy–it’s not Barack Obama–it’s Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz has released his birth certificate to the Dallas Morning News. Senator Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother and a father who fled Castro’s Cuba. Under American law, Cruz became an American citizen at birth because his mother was an American. Under Canadian law, Cruz is a Canadian citizen because he was born in Canada.

The article reports:

The presidential requirement of being a “natural born citizen” in Article 2, Section 1 of the US Constitution is unique, in that the concept has pretty much no other application in American life.  However, it’s not so unique as to be completely without analogy or comprehension.  A natural-born citizen can be defined as an American that does not require extra intervention to access citizenship rights.  If Cruz had to go through the naturalization process to vote, for instance, or to get a US passport, then he would not qualify to run for President.  Instead, Cruz has been able to legally exercise his rights as a citizen without any other intervention except his coming of age, as all American citizens do.  Current law makes it clear that regardless of how Canada sees Cruz, the US saw him as a citizen by provenance of his birth — a natural-born citizen.

Senator Cruz’s birth certificate is actually not related to this controversy. Ed Morrissey wonders if Senator Cruz is being a little tongue-in-cheek here. Since the controversy is rather silly to begin with, he might as well have a good laugh about it.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta