Ted Cruz not eligible to serve as president; U.S. citizenship not determined by bloodline

There is renewed debate regarding the eligibility of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father — to serve as president of the United States. Cruz has cited the U.S. Naturalization Law of March 26, 1790, and the Naturalization Act of 1795 as the basis of his claim that he is eligible to run for and serve as president. According to Therese Cingranelli, who teaches political science at Binghamton University, Cruz’s case is weak, since only natural-born citizens of the United States can serve as president.

“Cruz was born in Canada, but our neighboring country to the north is not a territory, military base, or embassy of the United States,” said Cingranelli. “Before he could become president, a new law would have to be enacted. Until that happens, Cruz may run for president. He just can’t serve as president.”

Cingranelli believes that the early leaders of the U.S. government who wrote these laws did not intend to provide citizenship to children through the bloodline of their mothers. “The Naturalization Act of 1790 granted citizenship to children of U.S. citizens born abroad — but it also specified that the right of citizenship could only be passed from fathers to their children,” said Cingranelli. “The act states that only those children “shall be considered as natural born citizens.’”

She adds that Cruz’s claim to citizenship through his mother is further weakened by the more recently adopted language of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which emphasizes place of birth, abandoning the idea of citizenship through bloodline. “It seems more reasonable, therefore, to infer that the writers of the [Naturalization Act of 1790] never intended for citizenship to be determined by the mother’s bloodline in cases where the father was not a U.S. citizen. Otherwise they would have used the word parents,” said Cingranelli.