Ted Cruz has been sued (again), and despite Donald Trump’s threat of litigation, he is not the plaintiff. Lawrence Joyce, a lawyer and pharmacist (interesting combination) filed a complaint in Illinois with the State Board of Elections asserting that Cruz is not eligible since he was born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban father.

The Board rejected the complaint so Joyce has petitioned the circuit court in Cook County for review of that decision. The judge will have a hearing on March 1, 2016, to determine if there is even jurisdiction to hear the complaint. Supposedly voters in New York and Alabama have also filed eligibility challenges. Another suit already exists in Texas, Schwartz v. Cruz, 4:16-cv-00106, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).

It’s so interesting that many people who want to make the claim that being born abroad to at least one American parent interferes with U.S. citizenship, are also the same people want to do away with birth right citizenship – where being born on American soil wouldn’t determine citizenship either. To be fair, most add the stipulation that being born on American soil would only be a problem where the parents were here illegally. But it’s not that simple, because if their interpretation was accepted it would necessarily change everyone’s determination of citizenship. Even if you were born here, then you would need to prove at least one of your parents was either a citizen or a legal resident. It would essentially eviscerate birthright citizenship and that starts to implicate Constitutional level changes.

Unfortunately the Founders did not make it easy for us by defining what it means to be a “natural born citizen” but I think the best way to think about it is to ask what were they going for by inserting those words? Did they mean to confuse us and to make us twist into pretzels to realize the meaning? I don’t think so. I believe they were simply making a distinction between those who would have an inherent loyalty to the country, and those whose loyalty had changed over time. Natural born citizens are those people who at birth have an automatic loyalty to the country – be it through blood or birthplace. People who are naturalized did not have the benefit of having an intangible connection at birth to America. It’s great that they’ve decided to become Americans but before they did that, they had no loyalty to America. Those people, while they will make great Americans, should not be eligible to be president because there will always be a question of loyalty.

Of course, we could always have a natural born traitor in our midst, as the most recent occupant of the Oval Office has appeared to be on several occasions, but no rule is perfect. With regard to Ted Cruz, I think the correct interpretation of the law is that he is a natural born citizen, but even more importantly there is absolutely no reason to doubt his loyalties to the United States of America. That is the true underlying reason for the rule, and that principle should be remembered as we wait to see how these lawsuits play out.