Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump is once again raising the question of what constitutes a natural born citizen, challenging whether fellow Republican Ted Cruz qualifies to be president. But one UTSA professor says, like President Obama, Cruz meets the criteria.
Similar to accusations he made against President Obama’s citizenship status in 2012, Trump is now challenging whether fellow Republican Ted Cruz is a natural-born citizen. Trump and others claim Cruz is ineligible for the presidency.
University of Texas at San Antonio political science professor Walt Wilson says being a natural born citizen is stipulated in the U.S. constitution as being one of the requirements for being the President of the United States and that’s why there is so much focus on this issue.
“You know I don’t think there is any question whether Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen and clearly there is no question whether President Obama was either," Wilson asserted.
Wilson also refutes the idea that the federal court system would ever become involved in solving whether Cruz is a natural born American citizen.
“I can’t imagine it would be taken seriously by a court if someone would want to sue Ted Cruz over this issue. I would imagine the case would be thrown out. Although I’m not an attorney, my understanding that is fairly established law that an individual whose parent is a U.S. citizen at the time of their birth is a natural born citizen," Wilson explained.
Cruz, while born to an American mother, was born in Canada and that has Trump and some constitutional scholars arguing that citizenship begins with the place of your birth and not the status of your parents at the time of your birth, citing English Common Law and the writings of early framers of the constitution that points to how where a person is born is the greatest criteria for their national allegiance.
