Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen
Senior Judge Dan Pellegrini has ruled that Ted Cruz may appear on the Pennsylvania ballot this coming April 26. (See my previous article on the case.) Judge Pellegrini wrote:
Having extensively reviewed all the articles cited in this opinion, as well as many others, this Court holds, consistent with the common law precedent and statutory history, that a “natural born citizen” includes any person who is a United States citizen from birth.
Judge Pellegrini rejected the argument that presidential eligibility is a “political question” although he fails to address the 20th Amendment in his argument that there is no demonstrable assignment of the question of presidential eligibility to Congress or to the Electoral College. His argument that the definition of natural born citizen is justiciable is based on a Supreme Court decision that a natural born citizen cannot be denaturalized (see pages 8-9 of the decision).
On the merits, Judge Pellegrini cites some familiar names to readers of this blog, including Prof. Charles Gordon and Congressional Research Service Attorney Jack Maskell as well as the arguments from law professors on the Cruz eligibility question that have appeared in the press of late (McManamon, Chin, Clement and Katyal).
Challenger Carmon Elliott says he will appeal to the State’s Supreme Court.
I suppose this is legalese (as in “I’m not ruling beyond what is being asked of me, i.e. if a citizen at birth is an NBC, not if this makes up the whole class of NBC’s”) because aren’t the two classes identical?
Oh, and cue the birther spin that “the judge may have ruled Cruz is an NBC but not that he’s an NBC for Constitutional purposes”…
I think he should have avoided the whole morass, but he didn’t. It’ll probably get appealed wince they didn’t get the answer they wanted, and the Appellate court may well say he overstepped his bounds or decide it is moot, who knows?