Legal Scholars Debate Cruz’s Eligibility

What does it mean to be a “natural born citizen”? That’s the central question legal scholars are asking in the debate over whether Sen. Ted Cruz, one of the front-runners for the Republican Presidential nomination who was born to an American citizen in Canada, is eligible to run for President at all. The Constitution mandates that presidents be “natural born citizens,” but does not define the term, and the Supreme Court has not addressed the question head-on either. Former Solicitors General Neal Katyal and Paul Clement point to the Naturalization Act of 1790 as evidence that Cruz is eligible. Others say that Act wouldn’t have been necessary at all if children born to American parents overseas were considered natural born citizens. Laurence H. Tribe wrote in the Boston Globe that traditional English common law defines “natural born” as within the territory of the king, with narrow exceptions.