Letters to the editor for Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016

Cruz not eligible to be president

The Republicans are placing on our ballot a person not eligible to serve as president of the United States.

A natural-born citizen of the United States of America cannot be anything else. They are born on American soil of American citizen parents and can claim no citizenship to any other country, since no other country is involved at their birth. No matter where their parents came from, being or becoming American citizens prior to birth removes all other countries’ involvement.

A natural-born citizen of another country or someone entitled to citizenship to another country by their parents cannot be a natural-born citizen of the United States. They can be a citizen of the U.S. by statute, not a natural-born citizen.

Ted Cruz was born a natural-born citizen of Canada and received Canadian citizenship at birth. His father is Cuban; he was entitled to Cuban citizenship. Since his mother is American, he is entitled to American citizenship — provided she filed a CRBA, however, that is not natural born.

The Constitution says, “No person except a natural born Citizen ... shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

In the U.S. Supreme Court’s Minor v. Happersett 1875, common-law, which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens.

Karri Meares

Stagecoach