Ted Cruz releases birth certificate

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) released his birth certificate to the Dallas Morning News on Sunday, a move that will undercut critics who say he’s ineligible to run for president.  

Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother. The Constitution says only a “natural born” American citizen can become president, which includes those born overseas to American parents.

{mosads}However, The Dallas Morning News reports that under Canadian law, Cruz’s birthplace of Calgary also made him an instant citizen of Canada. The Constitution doesn’t address whether someone with dual citizenship can run for the highest office.
 

Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier disputed the notion that Cruz was also a citizen of Canada. 

“Senator Cruz became a U.S. citizen at birth, and he never had to go through a naturalization process after birth to become a U.S. citizen,” she told The Dallas Morning News. “To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship, so there is nothing to renounce.”
 

Cruz is considering running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. The Tea Party star has already visited Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, three early states on the presidential calendar, in 2013.
 

The controversy over Cruz’s birthplace is reminiscent of the conspiracies that surrounded President Obama before he released his short-form and long-form birth certificates in 2011.
 

Some have continued to question the president’s birthplace. Earlier this month, Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) said he supported a continued investigation into Obama’s place of birth so that if it was determined he was born outside the U.S., “we can get rid of everything he’s done.”
 

Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.