2 replies to this topic

[Sci-Fi Girl]

This has been discussed before in another thread, in posts: 12, 13, 14, 16, and 22, but I think this is a big enough issue that it deserves it's own thread.

I think this is a very important question that needs to be decided on a large scale, because this kind of thing could keep coming up, and there needs to be some precedent.  In fact I think there should be some standardized process by which every potential candidate should be checked for eligibility, before they start running.  And once it is determined, it need never come up again!!  We need this for the future, and also now because this election is a mess.



Anyway, New York is the latest state to have a court case questioning Ted Cruz's citizenship, and his eligibility to be president.  (It is the second state that I have heard of doing so, unless I missed any others.)  As others have said, both here and in the court case, this really needs to be decided, one way or another, by a federal court not a state, or it will never be considered final.

NY judge considers Ted Cruz's citizenship, presidential eligibility

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ALBANY -- A State Supreme Court judge is now considering a petition that would remove Texas Senator Ted Cruz's name from the Republican presidential primary ballot in New York.

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Cruz's mother is and was a U.S. citizen when he was born but the Texas Senator was actually born on Canadian soil.

"Mr. Cruz was born as a Canadian citizen, he owed his allegiance to the Queen of England, he was not born in the United States, therefore he is not a natural-born citizen," Gallo's attorney Roger Bernstein said.

Attorney Grant Lally, who is representing Cruz, disagrees. The argument for Cruz is that people born of a U.S. Citizen are natural born U.S. citizens themselves.

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New York's presidential primary is April 19th. 95 delegates are at stake for the Republicans.

SFG

Edited by Sci-Fi Girl, 04 March 2016 - 12:22 PM.

[3C273]

It is not true that the child of an American born citizen is also an American.  We (both US natural born citizens) brought my daughter (born in the US) to Canada when she was 4.  Years later, her son was born and she tried to register him as a US citizen, but this was denied because a person has to live for 8 full years in the US for their children to be considered US citizens.  And she, as an adult,  has always voted in the US by absentee ballot and has always filed her US taxes, but none of that counts towards her son's citizenship.  She was informed by the US state department that if she moves to the US with her son she can then apply for citizenship for him.  Now, that is one part of the law.  There may be many other "loop holes" to citizenship that I don't know about.  I do know that if a US citizen with dual citizenship votes in a foreign federal election, that person automatically loses US citizenship.  My husband and I have never registered to vote in any Canadian national election - also, registration is not automatic, you have to ask to be registered [though it is really easy to do so - one can even do it by checking a box on one's Canadian income tax form].  And tv stations in Calgary have shown the registration to vote forms for Cruz's parents.  But there is no evidence that they voted, since that kind of data is too private for tv stations to get a hold of.

The bizarre thing is that Cruz was a Canadian citizen when elected a senator in Texas!  He only recently renounced his Canadian citizenship.

[QueenTiye]

3C273, on 05 March 2016 - 11:12 AM, said:

The bizarre thing is that Cruz was a Canadian citizen when elected a senator in Texas!  He only recently renounced his Canadian citizenship.

Was this a result of the various modifications to citizenship laws in Canada?

QT