John McCain's citizenship was more complicated than most people realize. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause#Jo....

huh. I never realized this. Thanks for the link.

McCain is distinguishable from Cruz' case though. He was born on a Naval Air Base in a US territory (the Canal Zone) which is legally a lot closer to US soil than Canada is--and some of the old common law precedents specifically address cases like this.

technically it says you must be a 'natural born' us citizen. who the hell knows what that means. If we assume the framers were well-read and fans of shakespeare, this means that anyone born by caesarean section is disqualified from holding the highest office. They were wise enough to know that the dermal microbiome of c-section children is destabilizing creates individuals of temperament ill-suited for the role.

There's a pretty well-accepted interpretation of what it means. There have been presidential eligibility challenges: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause#El...

Well accepted is not the same thing as legally ruled.

The requirement is that you be a "natural born" citizen.

That said, although legal scholars can have how many angels can dance on the head of a pin debates about this, the most reasonable interpretation is probably that they're US citizens/eligible for US citizenship from birth. If push ever came to shove on this question, one would hope the courts would side with the most liberal interpretation.

Can you find case law that says that?