Republican presidential primary front-runner Donald Trump, who over the weekend joked he might file a lawsuit over Sen. Ted Cruz's eligibility to be president, on Monday doubled down, tweeting that the Texas senator must resolve the issue now or withdraw his candidacy.
"It's time for Ted Cruz to either settle his problem with the FACT that he was born in Canada and was a citizen of Canada, or get out of race," Trump said on Twitter Monday.
The issue is the Constitution's requirement that a president be a "natural born citizen." In 2008, Barack Obama's eligibility was challenged because of allegations he was born outside the United States and his mother wasn't old enough to bestow American citizenship at birth.
Sen. John McCain's eligibility also was challenged, because he was born on an American base in the Panama Canal zone while his father served in the U.S. military.
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The problem is that the Constitution does not define the term natural-born citizen, and the U.S. Supreme Court has not issued a ruling interpreting its meaning. The interpretations by constitutional scholars range from a person who is an American citizen at birth to one who is born of American citizen parents in the United States.
The Hill reported Trump talked about a lawsuit over Cruz's eligibility at an appearance in Sioux City, Iowa.
"Can you imagine if I did it? Should I do it just for fun?" Trump asked.
He has warned that Cruz must resolve the issue, going to court himself if necessary, because Democrats undoubtedly would sue if he were to win the GOP nomination.
Worse, there have been warnings that Democrats would forum-shop, picking a sympathetic state elections board or judge who would possibly order Cruz off the ballot.
WND reported over the weekend that a Republican attorney in Illinois, a supporter of Ben Carson, also has filed a motion with the Illinois State Board of Elections to have Cruz's name removed from the official Republican primary ballot for the Illinois March 15 presidential primary.
The legal challenge affirms Trump's argument the eligibility issue will dog Cruz as he pursues the White House.
The motion from Lawrence J. Joyce, a pharmacist, notes that Cruz was born Dec. 22, 1970, in Calgary, Alberta, and that he has been a citizen of the United States continuously since birth under § 301(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1401.
But Joyce's motion contends Cruz is not a "natural born citizen" under the meaning of Article 2.
The 'nightmare scenario'
Joyce said he believes Carson would be a better candidate.
"Second, I am terrified that if we don't get this cleared up right now, if Ted Cruz does become the nominee, the Democrats will cherry-pick which court or election board they will petition to have him declared to be ineligible in September or October," Joyce continued.
"The result could be that the Democrats may chalk up a string of three or four or five victories [in their election board petitions] in a row, potentially forcing Cruz to resign the nomination (if for no other reason than that fund raising would quickly dry up)," Joyce explained.
Joyce argued that should Cruz be forced to withdraw as the GOP presidential nominee, the party's vice presidential nominee would not automatically become the presidential nominee.
"Sen. Ted Cruz was born in Canada," Joyce said in a press statement. "He has been a U.S. citizen since birth, but that was by statute. The Constitution requires one to be a 'natural born' citizen in order to be president. And the governing case law of the U.S. Supreme Court and the whole history of the law points to the conclusion that Ted Cruz is not a natural born citizen.
"What is worse," Joyce continued, "is that Sen. Cruz has known about this problem for a long time now. Yet he has not even made any effort to clarify this in any formal setting, though he could have at least done that.
"Sen. Cruz has been whistling past the graveyard all along," Joyce's statement continued. "That he should happen to do so within the thoughts of his own mind would be one thing, but that he should now drag the entire Republican Party through a potential nightmare simply because of his negligence, his own private, wishful thinking and his lack of due diligence is inexcusable."
In a telephone interview, Cruz's attorney, Sharee Langenstein of Murphysboro, Illinois, declined to comment on the case.
Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1970, while his parents were working there in the oil fields. Cruz's mother, Eleanor Elizabeth Darragh Wilson, was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware.
Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, was a Cuban citizen who entered the United States in 1957 on a foreign student visa he obtained from the U.S. Consulate in Havana. Both Cruz's parents received Canadian citizenship under Canadian immigration and naturalization laws.
In 1974, when Cruz was 4 years old, the family moved to Texas. Cruz's father renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2005 when he became a U.S. naturalized citizen. On May 14, 2014, Cruz received official confirmation from the Canadian government that he had successfully renounced his Canadian citizenship.