[EL] Who is a "Natural Born Citizen

[Robin Chand]

Dear Professor Mozaffar -

I think your email is a great segue to discuss Senator Cruz's eligibility
to serve as president.

Based on my reading, the Constitution may prescribe a heightened
citizenship standard to serve as president versus ordinary, runofthemill
citizenship.  In that regard, the document's requirement that a person
serving have been a resident for 14 years, when considered against Senator
Cruz's relatively recent renouncement of his Canadian citizenship, may
weigh against his eligibility to serve.

This issue, in my opinion, is in addition to the other problematic aspects
of his claim that he is eligible - he is born to only one american parent,
neither of his parents were serving in the military or on religious
missions. and, most glaring of all, he was not born in the United States.
I think Senator Cruz may have a serious problem on his hands.  Either way,
the Supreme Court really oughta weigh in and define this issue once and for
all.

I would be very curious as to what the folks on this list serve though
about this issue.

Best wishes and happy new year -

Robin

On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 12:51 PM, Mozaffar, Shaheen <SMOZAFFAR at bridgew.edu>
wrote:

> I would greatly appreciate help from the constitutional experts on this
> list on the following criteria raised by students about the definition of a
> "natural born" citizen" and hence eligibility for becoming US President:
>
> 1.  A person born in any of one of the 50 states, regardless of the
> parents' citizenship (straightforward)
>
> 2.  A person born anywhere in the world and at least one or both parents
> are a US citizen, either natural-born or naturalized (Examples: Senator
> McCain, Senator Cruz and Mr. Romney).
>
> 3.  A person born in any one of the 50 states, regardless of the parents'
> citizenship when the state was a territory, and was grandfathered (e.g.
> Senator Goldwater)
>
> 4.  A person born in Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, and Northern
> Mariana Islands regardless of parents' citizenship
>
>
>
> 4.  A person born on an overseas American military base, regardless of
> parents' citizenships.  This would apply, for example, to children of local
> employees
> who are contracted to work for the military or the US embassy and could be
> eligible for medical treatment, including, childbirth, in US medical
> facilities.  An intriguing hypothetical:  What about a newborn child of a
> female terrorist-suspect incarcerated in Guantanamo?  Is the newborn a US
> citizen
>
>
>
> 5.  A person born on a US-based airline travelling in international
> airspace or a US-based ship travelling in international water, regardless
> of parents' citizenship
>
>
> Thank you!
>
> ****************************************
> Shaheen Mozaffar, Ph.D.
> Professor
> Department of Political Science
> 180 Summer Street
> Bridgewater State University
> Bridgewater, MA 02325
> USA
>
> +1-508-531-2291 (me)
> +1-508-531-1387 (dept)
> +1-508-531-6186 (fax)
>
> smozaffar at bridgew.edu<mailto:smozaffar at bridgew.edu><mailto:
> smozaffar at bridgew.edu>
> www.bridgew.edu<http://www.bridgew.edu/><http://www.bridgew.edu/>
> ****************************************
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