Professor Chin Interviewed on Presidential Eligibility by Southern California Public Radio
Professor Gabriel "Jack" Chin commented for AirTalk, a program on Southern California Public Radio station KPCC, on the constitutional requirements for presidential eligibility. One such requirement is that the president must be "natural-born citizen" of the United States, which has prompted questions as to whether Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who was born in Canada to a U.S. citizen mother, would be eligible.
Though "natural-born citizen" is "a largely undefined term," Chin said, it's unlikely that any of the present candidates, all of whom are clearly U.S. citizens, would be successfully challenged.
"There has been great reluctance on the part of political challengers to sue their competitors, so I find it extremely unlikely the Democratic Party would sue Ted Cruz challenging his eligibility to the presidency, and no one on the Republican side seems eager to do it, either," Chin said. "So I think it's more likely that the historical practice will be followed and it will be left to the voters to decide who they consider the appropriate person to be president."
Gabriel "Jack" Chin, who joined the King Hall faculty in 2011, is a prolific and much-cited criminal and immigration law scholar whose work has addressed many of the most pressing social issues of our time.