Rubio Fights A Florida Lawsuit Claiming He Has a ‘Birther’ Problem
Rubio was born in Miami in 1971. But Rubio's Cuban immigrant parents did not become U.S. citizens until 1975.
Marco Rubio:
Rubio has sought to have a court complaint in Florida against
him thrown out, saying the argument “would jeopardize centuries of precedent
and deem at least six former presidents ineligible for office.” (Last week he
told reporters of Cruz, "I don't think that's an issue.")
That’s
convinced so-called birthers to conclude Rubio is ineligible under Article 2 of
the Constitution, which says "no person except a natural born citizen …
shall be eligible to the Office of President."
The
questions arose in 2011 when Rubio was being talked about as Mitt Romney’s
running mate.
"It's
nothing to do with him personally. But you can't change the rules because you
like a certain person. Then you have no rules," New Jersey lawyer Mario
Apuzzo told the Tampa Bay Times in 2011.
From the
report:
Birthers rely on various
passages to back up their argument. One is the treatise The Law of Nations by
Swiss philosopher Emer de Vattel, which they say influenced the founding
fathers. "The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country,
of parents who are citizens," Vattel wrote.
They also cite the U.S. Supreme
Court, which in the 1875 case Minor vs. Happersett, used the term "natural
born citizen" in reference to persons who were born in the United States,
of U.S.-citizen parents.
"The arguments aren't crazy," said Georgetown law professor Lawrence Solum, an expert in constitutional theory. But, he added, "the much stronger argument suggests that if you were born on American soil that you would be considered a natural born citizen."
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