Is Ted Cruz a Cuban citizen?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Beth

While you guys are pillorying Cruz, boot Rubio out, too please. He is another Cuban spy.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's not spread vile disinformation around the Internet, OK?

I mean, I don't think we have all the evidence necessary to say whether or not Marc Rubio, who as far as I know has never disavowed his grandfather's decision to enter the United States as an illegal immigrant from the Communist-ruled nation of Cuba, is in this country working as an agent of that same regime. At best, all we can say is that we do not know for certain whether or not Marc Rubio is working with forces inimical to our American democracy. I do agree that this is obviously a very frightening possibility, and we can all hope that Mr. Rubio will cooperate by releasing all the evidence needed to substantiate his claim that he is not a Cuban spy in a timely manner.

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by Beth

Why fear monger over Cuba?!?! Seriously!

Perhaps I'm being too much a "moderate" in this regard, but I have a difficult time characterizing as "fear mongering" good-faith inquiry into whether a foreign-born politico who brazenly uses a false name intends to further the anti-American agenda of the enemy nation with which said politico has natural-born affinity.

Chuck, you go right on ahead and keep asking the hard questions!

[erimir]

Originally Posted by Adam

Mr. Rubio

Mr. Rubio.

Which translates to Mr. Blond. Certainly the type of name you'd expect an operative to adopt.

[ChuckF]

Originally Posted by Stephen Maturin

Chuck, you go right on ahead and keep asking the hard questions!

Thank you for this, sir, you are a patriot. I truly and sincerely wish that I did not have to ask these difficult questions. First, because we shouldn't have to wonder these things about the junior Senator from Texas - it's a sad commentary that we are so vulnerable to foreign threats that we're in this situation to begin with. Second, because the press should be asking these questions. Where is the fourth estate on this? I'm just afraid that they're all so hoodwinked by this internationalist of foreign birth with such an un-American background and a false name that they're afraid to ask; or maybe they're beholden to the same foreign powers to whom Rafael Cruz owes his allegiance. It's hard to say which, but unless we demand that Rafael Cruz provide answers to these very basic and very reasonable questions, our Liberty will not survive.

[LadyShea]

Is Sheriff Arpaio working on this?

[Stephen Maturin]

Good question. If ever a case cried out for a 30-day deadline, it's this one.

[ChuckF]

Agreed. America needs the authority of a Sheriff, to protect America.

[SR71]

There better not be any layers.

[ChuckF]

Photoshop has a "flatten image" feature to merge multiple layers into one. If there are no layers, this strongly suggests that the image could have been manipulated using this feature. And I am willing to prepare an affidavit to that effect.

[Beth]

Let us demand Rubio's certificate!

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by erimir

Mr. Rubio.

Which translates to Mr. Blond. Certainly the type of name you'd expect an operative to adopt.

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Originally Posted by ChitoF

And I am willing to prepare an affidavit to that effect.

[ChuckF]

"Ted" (false name) Cruz has promised to speak until he is "no longer able to stand." You know who else makes long speeches?

[Dingfod]

I bet he doesn't have the stamina of Wendy Davis.

[Angakuk]

Or the shoes.

[Beth]

He likes green eggs and ham. Can you blame him? He was suffering from dementia from food poisoning. I actually fell asleep watching this guy last night and had nasty Ayn Rand dreams, and then my husband woke me up to say this guy was a hero. I went on a diatribe and made him leave me alone after about fifty tries. ONE time he wants to talk politics and it is to praise a faux filibuster when in the end, he voted in support along with the rest of the Senate. What a damned fake douche!!

[Dingfod]

He kind of fucked on the Green Eggs and Ham analogy, that story had the character not liking them until he tried them. How can the Obama-haters know if they don't like Obamacare if they haven't tried it yet? They cannot.

[Stormlight]

Originally Posted by Beth

Ayn Rand dreams

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I bet he doesn't have the stamina of Wendy Davis.

He did not. Senator Ted (not his real name) Cruz went on longer than she did, 21 hours, but that's because they allowed him to, and Senate rules allowed him to take regular breaks, to sit down, etc. They even gave him time off to go read Green Eggs and Ham to his kids without actually understanding the moral of the story.

[Dingfod]

Senator Ted (not his real name) Cruz (R-TX) referred to an unemployed Rutgers student by the name of John Connelly during his filibuster, saying Connelly was having to flop on a couch of a friend because Obama. Connelly was mildly amused when he found out.

Originally Posted by unemployed couch surfer John Connelly, when told by a friend that Ted (not his real name) Cruz mentioned him

Well, that's funny. I'm heading to an appointment I can only go to because of Obamacare.

Apparently Ted (not his real name) Cruz got his name from a Wall Street Journal article about student debt.

[Dingfod]

At the end of his faux-filibuster, Ted (not his real name) Cruz compared it to the Bataan Death March, then found himself apologizing to a very angry Filipino veterans group. He also compared moderate Republicans to Neville Chamberlain, a thinly-veiled Godwinism referring to the Prime Minister of England prior to WW2, a remark for which he almost immediately apologized.

Video: Ted Cruz apologizes to Filipino veterans over "Bataan Death March" joke.

[Dingfod]

"Ted" (not his real name) Cruz has implied that renouncing his Canadian citizenship is complicated and his attorneys are working on it. Not true, say Canadian authorities, it's only a 4 page document that requires no lawyers at all.

Originally Posted by Richard Kurland, a Vancouver-based immigration attorney

Unless there's a security issue that hasn't been disclosed, unless there's a mental health issue that hasn't been disclosed, there's no reason for anything other than a lickety-split process to occur.

A-ha! There's the problem.

Ted Cruz: Still Canadian As Immigration Lawyers Express Confusion

[Clutch Munny]

Unlike renouncing American citizenship, which is galactically, hilariously complicated.

[Stephen Maturin]

Ted Cruz birtherism has found its way to the federal court system, as was always its destiny. The lawsuit of Newton Boris Schwartz, Sr. is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Walter L. Wagner's lawsuit is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.

Schwartz's name is funnier, but Wagner may have Taitzian potential:

In 2008, Wagner filed suit in federal court against the U.S. Department of Energy and European Center for Nuclear Energy Research (CERN), alleging that the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator might create a black hole that could destroy Earth — and that the governmental entities were covering up this risk.

[erimir]

While those lawsuits don't seem to have the best people involved, I did read a post that has persuaded me that perhaps Cruz IS ineligible to be president:

Guest post from Mark Field regarding Ted Cruz's eligibility for the presidency - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money

In summary, adopting the theoretical reading of “natural born” which accommodates the British statute creates a number of difficult problems: the need to overrule at least one case; the need to disapprove language in at least 5 more; the difficulty of explaining the statutory sequence and the language of the 14th Amendment. In contrast, the rule adopted in Wong Kim Ark and affirmed in Bellei fits the whole sequence very well. It explains the distinction between “natural born” and “naturalized”. It accommodates the various statutes, with only the need to explain the 1790 law as a mistake which was quickly corrected. It makes the 14th Amendment consistent with the original Constitution. And it leaves intact all the subsequent cases without any need to disapprove or overrule them. It appears to me much the more persuasive reading.

Now, as it turns out, I disagree that someone with Cruz's background should be ineligible to be president. Being born abroad shouldn't disqualify you, IMO. Cruz's background, in terms of birth in Canada and non-citizen father, should not be disqualifying. It doesn't suggest that he's too disloyal to be president.

Ok, well, Cruz's personal qualities DO suggest he's only loyal to himself, but that wasn't caused by him being born in Canada.

But as the Constitution does stipulate that one must be a "natural born citizen" and given the precedents cited and the evidence from the writers of the Constitution, it seems to me that he is probably not eligible. At the very least, it does not seem like a frivolous question and it doesn't rely on any conspiracy theories, such as claiming that his mother wasn't really American* or that Ted Cruz was really born in Castro's secret bunker. It happens that most liberals probably wouldn't want to hold that birth abroad is disqualifying, but the Constitution still says what it says.

Now, even though it would require at least a tiny bit of backtracking by certain members of the court, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the Supreme Court rules that Cruz is eligible and with a majority partially composed of those who installed George W. Bush in the presidency. But it wouldn't be so bad to have them issue a ruling one way or the other on the meaning of the natural born citizen requirement, for future reference. A ruling for Cruz would shut the birthers up in future cases, a ruling against him would, well... at least it would stop Cruz from being president. Seems like a win-win.

*Although Alan Grayson has suggested that she may have become a Canadian citizen prior to Ted Cruz's birth. If so, Ted Cruz wouldn't even be an American citizen: Democratic Congressman Vows Legal Challenge On Ted Cruz And The 'Natural Born Citizen' Question

[Stephen Maturin]

You are correct, sir! Unlike the Obama birfer nonsense, this Cruz stuff actually has some meat on its bones.

So far as the documented history reveals, there wasn't a single, solitary shred of discussion or elaboration on the meaning of "natural born citizen" at the constitutional convention in 1787. The Congressional Research Service pumped out 50 pages of research on the issue back in 2011.

Because reasonable people can and do disagree on exactly what NBC means, and because Ted (not his real name) Cruz's contacts with the U.S. at birth were considerably less than extensive, reasonable people also disagree about Cruz's eligibility.

This lawprof says no, based on her conclusion that only someone born in-country can be an NBC.

This lawprof say Cruz is eligible, asserting that NBC simply means "citizen at birth." Cruz qualifies as a citizen at birth, so the argument goes, by virtue of his mother's U.S. citizenship.

These two former Solicitors General say yes.

This lawprof says no.

Lawyer/lawprof Laurence Tribe says that if the decision is left to originalists -- like Ted (not his real name) Cruz -- then Cruz would likely be boned. Namby-pamby, candy-ass "living Constitution" types would be more likely to conclude that Cruz is eligible.

Would anyone actually be able to get some court to rule on the issue? Well ... maybe. Let's not forget that despite her dazzlingly spectacular incompetence, Orly Taitz managed to wrangle an evidentiary hearing on the issue of Obama's eligibility. The hearing took place before an administrative law judge of Georgia's Office of State Administrative Hearings in an action challenging Obama's eligibility to appear on the 2012 Democratic primary election ballot in Georgia. I'd describe the outcome of the proceeding, but we all know what the outcome was.