14 January 2016

Natural Born Citizen and the Presidency

The natural born citizen question is currently front and center in the Republican primary contest for President of the United States. Students in my U.S. Constitutional Law course will know that a requirement to be President is being a "natural born citizen" of the United States. As I said in class, clearly this disqualifies someone who became a naturalized American citizen, for instance Arnold Schwarzenegger. But what about an American born overseas to American parents? Are they natural born citizen? Or must the person be born in the United States? The issues is being discussed (again) in the United States because Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who is running for President, was born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban father. He has his American citizenship through his mother, of course, but does being born in Canada disqualify him from running for the Presidency? Donald Trump thinks so. So do some legal scholars. The National Constitution Center's blog "Constitution Daily" has more.