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Canadian-Born Senator, Ted Cruz, Faces ‘Birther’ Lawsuit In Race For U.S. Presidency

By Val Powell
Published on: 10:11 PST, Jan 18, 2016

Republican presidential candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz is once again facing an issue that could cause him his bid for presidency.

Newton Schwartz, an attorney from Cruz’s “adopted hometown” of Houston has filed a “birther” lawsuit against the senator, questioning his eligibility to run for president of the United States.

In the lawsuit, Schwartz is asking the Supreme Court to decide whether Cruz would be violating the “natural born” requirement of a president if he ever wins the seat.

Cruz, 45, was born in Calgary, Alberta in Canada, to an American mother, Eleonor Darragh, and a Cuban father, Rafael Cruz.

While his place of birth does not fit the “natural born” citizen requirement of presidency, Cruz has continuously claimed that because his mother is an American, he is still considered “natural born.”

History has yet to see a U.S. president who was born outside the United States, regardless of the circumstances, and his case is certainly a unique but crucial subject that needs to be addressed.

The Constitution states, “no Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

Even after more than two centuries, this section of the Constitution has yet to be decided by the Supreme Court.

“Only the U.S. Supreme Court can finally decide, determine judicially, and settle this issue now,” Scharwtz stated in the suit.

Republican rival and business tycoon Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday, right after news broke about the “birther” lawsuit.

Cruz reportedly stayed in Canada until he was 4-years-old, and then moved to Texas and has lived there to this day.

He thought everything was fine, not realizing that he still had Canadian citizenship until the Dallas Morning News raised the issue in 2013. As a result, Ted Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2014, and soon after declared that he was running for the U.S. presidency.

However, according to Article II, Section I of the Constitution, the meaning of “natural born citizen” is that the person in question was born within the United States, or outside the country, provided that his parents are American.

This means that the entire “natural born” issue only aims to draw the line between citizens at birth and naturalized citizens. Furthermore, the Constitution only accepts two types of citizenship: natural born and naturalized.

If Ted Cruz isn’t naturalized, then he must be natural born.

Last week, Trump revealed that the Democratic Party is planning to file the same lawsuit against Cruz if he wins the nomination for GOP.

Trump, 69, has been using the same approach against Cruz in an attempt to dissuade the senator’s supporters from choosing him at the caucus on Feb. 1.

Meanwhile, Ted Cruz sees this attack as a desperate move by Trump to recover support from the Republicans.

Earlier reports revealed that back in September, when Trump was asked if Cruz’s citizenship would be a problem, he replied that the presidential candidate is in good standing.

However, that view changed as Cruz continues to bite on Trump’s lead in national polls.

Schwartz, who began his legal career as a Houston prosecutor in 1955, and has been voting for Democrats in presidential elections since 1968, stated in the lawsuit that the Supreme Court should expedite the decision on Ted Cruz’s eligibility because the first caucus is Iowa on Feb. 1 is fast approaching.

[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]

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