(Response to The Election 2028 Prospects As of Now)
Dear Mr. Schaper:
Your current article on Republican and Democrat prospects for 2028 bring up an important issue for the GOP. Neither Rubio nor Cruz are eligible for the presidency.
Secretary Rubio was born to Cuban-citizen parents. Senator Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban-citizen father. The Constitution requires those in the highest office to be "natural-born" citizens as opposed to just "citizens", the requirement for members of Congress.
If either man becomes the Republican nominee, the Democrats would need but a single swing-state supreme court to rule him ineligible for the ballot. In 2024, Democrats used a similar effort to keep President Trump off of state ballots in Colorado. So there's precedent.
The Constitution was ignored by both political parties in 2008 and 2012 when the son of a British subject ran for high office. In 2020, Kamala Harris was elected vice president even though both parents were citizens of foreign countries.
Scholarship and history show that the Framers understood the term "natural-born citizen" to mean a person born on U.S. soil to parents who were U.S. citizens at the time of the child's birth. Legal challenges in 2008, 2012, and 2020 were turned back by the U.S. Supreme Court on technicalities. Justice Thomas has indicated the court is loathe to take up this hot button issue and definitively rule on the intentions of the Framers.
Perhaps, one day we'll select presidential candidates through a search for the best people for the job. Political parties tend to crown candidates based not on merit but rather on current popularity or, in some cases, a sense of entitlement. Hopefully, in the future, the only angst for a voter will be having to select a candidate from among several eminently qualified people.
Best,
Harold Winard
Wharton, New Jersey
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