Why Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had to renounce his Canadian citizenship
| WASHINGTON
No offense, Canada, but native son Ted Cruz doesn鈥檛 want you.
The freshman Republican senator from Texas 鈥� and possible 2016 presidential candidate 鈥� announced Monday evening he is renouncing the Canadian citizenship that, until just a few days ago, he didn鈥檛 think he had.
Yes, Senator Cruz was born in Canada, and thus automatically a Canadian citizen. But he was born to an American mother 鈥� the former Eleanor Wilson, born in Wilmington, Del. 鈥� and that makes Cruz a 鈥渘atural born鈥� citizen in the eyes of most legal experts. That phrase 鈥� natural-born citizen 鈥� appears in the Constitution as one of the eligibility requirements for the US presidency.
Still, 鈥渂irtherism鈥� is likely to dog Cruz anyway, as it has President Obama. More on that in a minute.
Having acknowledged in a statement Monday that he 鈥渕ay technically have dual citizenship,鈥� following a report in The Dallas Morning News, Cruz took the expected next step: to say that he will give up the Canadian part.
鈥淣othing against Canada, but I鈥檓 an American by birth and as a US senator, I believe I should be only an American,鈥� Cruz said.
As a political matter, that belief would logically be extra-strong for anyone thinking of running for president. After all, Americans want their presidents to bleed red, white, and blue, not maple syrup.
But would holding dual American-Canadian citizenship have prevented Cruz from legally running for president? There鈥檚 no clear answer, since the Constitution is silent on that question, and the courts have not addressed it.
Chances are, anyone in Cruz鈥檚 situation 鈥� that is, born outside the US to at least one American citizen in a country, like Canada, that automatically confers birthright citizenship 鈥� would do what he did: Give up the non-American citizenship for political reasons. That takes care of the legal question before it reaches a courtroom.
But if Cruz does run for president, and he鈥檚 showing all the telltale signs 鈥� such as traveling to Iowa and New Hampshire 鈥� then chances are, questions about his eligibility will continue to pop up. Actually, one could say that he faces a harder argument against his eligibility than Mr. Obama did. Obama was born in the United States and released the long-form version of his Hawaiian birth certificate in 2011 to prove it (though to birthers, that proved nothing). He was also born to an American mother.
In fact, Obama could have been born in Kenya to his American mother, and still have been eligible to be president. Or he could have been born to two non-US citizens on American soil and still been eligible.
Cruz, too, has released his birth certificate, showing that he was born in Calgary, Alberta, on Dec. 22, 1970, to an American mother and a Cuban father. The Cruzes were living in Calgary, because they had started a seismic-data business there. When Ted was four, they moved to Texas and stayed there. Cruz鈥檚 father, Rafael Cruz, became a naturalized American citizen in 2005.
So, as long as Cruz behaves like a presidential candidate, will he face questions from birthers? There鈥檚 some irony to that question. The birthers who have consistently questioned Obama鈥檚 eligibility for the presidency, no matter how much evidence he produces, are typically conservatives, many of them tea party supporters.
Cruz was elected to the Senate last November on a wave of tea party support. Now, the shoe鈥檚 on the other foot; some liberal bloggers have suggested that Cruz鈥檚 Canadian birth disqualifies him for the presidency.
The problem is that Article II, Section I of the Constitution does not define the phrase 鈥渘atural-born citizen,鈥� and so its meaning has come to be understood via a consensus of legal scholars over the generations.
A 2009 study by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) defines 鈥渘atural born鈥� US citizenship as being conferred either 鈥渁t birth鈥� or 鈥渂y birth鈥� 鈥� and includes, as an example, the circumstance of Cruz鈥檚 birth.
鈥淭he weight of scholarly and historical opinion appears to support the notion that 鈥榥atural born citizen鈥� means one who is entitled under the Constitution or laws of the United States to US citizenship 鈥榓t birth鈥� or 鈥榖y birth,鈥� including 鈥� those born abroad of one citizen parent who has met US residency requirements,鈥� wrote Jack Maskell, a CRS legislative attorney.
