Marco Rubio Has A Florida Court Challenge on his Eligibility to be President

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."

Other legal experts agree.