Hacker News Reader

Comment by monocasa | Hacker News Reader

Ted Cruz was born in Canada. The naturalization requirement is a lot looser than you might think.

He was born a US citizen though. The requirement isn't that you are born on US soil, but that you are born a US citizen. John McCain was born in Panama.

John McCain's citizenship was more complicated than most people realize. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause#Jo....

huh. I never realized this. Thanks for the link.

McCain is distinguishable from Cruz' case though. He was born on a Naval Air Base in a US territory (the Canal Zone) which is legally a lot closer to US soil than Canada is--and some of the old common law precedents specifically address cases like this.

technically it says you must be a 'natural born' us citizen. who the hell knows what that means. If we assume the framers were well-read and fans of shakespeare, this means that anyone born by caesarean section is disqualified from holding the highest office. They were wise enough to know that the dermal microbiome of c-section children is destabilizing creates individuals of temperament ill-suited for the role.

There's a pretty well-accepted interpretation of what it means. There have been presidential eligibility challenges: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause#El...

Well accepted is not the same thing as legally ruled.

The requirement is that you be a "natural born" citizen.

That said, although legal scholars can have how many angels can dance on the head of a pin debates about this, the most reasonable interpretation is probably that they're US citizens/eligible for US citizenship from birth. If push ever came to shove on this question, one would hope the courts would side with the most liberal interpretation.

Can you find case law that says that?

I defend facts, not Ted Cruz:

"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."

Ted's parents were US Citizens. Are Musk's?

Requirements for the Presedent are diffrent than that of a Senator.

Place of birth does not matter for the House or Senate. Only need to be a US citizen.

For the President it's a "higher standard" you must be a native born Citizen.

"Natural born" citizen.

Which isn't 100% defined and legal scholars can and do argue the edge cases based on lots of things including very old British common law antecedents. The consensus seems to equal citizen from birth although some disagree.

Ted Cruz has run for president in the past.

"No Person except a natural born Citizen ... shall be eligible to the Office of President"

Natural born means "citizen at birth", not "born in the US"> One can also be a citizen at birth (under certain circumstances) by having parent(s) who are U.S. citizens. Ted Cruz unequivocably meets this standard.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_Stat...

Ted Cruz was a candidate for U.S. President two years ago.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com