Constitutional Minute: Natural-born citizenship
We the People
National Constitution Center
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2016
⏱️ 1 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and this is natural-born citizenship in a constitutional minute. |
| 0:07.0 | Donald Trump has suggested that Senator Ted Cruz may be ineligible for the presidency. |
| 0:12.0 | Article 2, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution requires that, |
| 0:15.0 | quote, no person except a natural-born citizen |
| 0:18.0 | shall be eligible to the office of president. |
| 0:20.0 | Senator Cruz was born in Canada |
| 0:22.0 | to an American mother and a Cuban father. |
| 0:24.0 | The phrase natural born is not defined in the Constitution, |
| 0:27.0 | but the Naturalization Act of 1790, passed by the first Congress, |
| 0:30.0 | provided the children of citizens of the United States born outside the U.S. |
| 0:34.1 | shall be considered natural-born citizens as long as their father had been a U.S. resident. |
| 0:38.6 | A number of scholars take the position that the framers intended the natural-born citizen clause to extend to people born abroad to |
| 0:44.9 | citizens parents. However, the Supreme Court has never ruled on the issue. On behalf of the National |
| 0:50.1 | Constitution Center, I'm Jeffrey Rose. |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from National Constitution Center, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of National Constitution Center and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.