The Judge Cristina show

Catholic University law school Professor Sarah Duggin is quoted in a Feb. 24 op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times, "Question Ted Cruz should ask: Can a foreign-born American be president?

Authored by columnist Doyle McManus, the opinion piece notes that Texas Senator Ted Cruz, widely considered likely to run for president, was born in Calgary, Alberta. Thanks to his mother's American citizenship, Cruz was a U.S. citizen at birth. Professor Duggin and other academics have written about the Constitution's ambiguously worded "natural born" provision regarding the U.S. citizenship requirement for serve as president of the United States. The core question-is a U.S. citizen born abroad qualified to serve as president?-is not a settled debate and has swirled around previous candidates for the job, including Sen. John McCain, born in the Panama Canal Zone. The McManus op-ed states: "The consensus [among constitutional lawyers] is that it means citizens at birth," said Gabriel Chin, a professor at UC Davis. "But people are not 1000% confident." "In my view, it does merit a test," agreed Sarah Helene Duggin, a professor at the Catholic University of America. Indeed, she argued, if Cruz were to win the Republican nomination, it would be in the nation's interest to get the question settled early.
"If we ever get to the point where we have a presidential candidate with this issue, we will need a clarification," she said. "If the candidate were elected and then disqualified, that would be a serious constitutional crisis."