MERCERVILLE, N.J. – A New Jersey administrative law judge on Monday heard two challenges to GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s eligibility to appear on the New Jersey ballot, based upon the Texas senator’s birthplace in Canada.
The judge, Jeff Masin, didn’t decide the challenges to Cruz’s eligibility to appear on the June 7 primary ballot, but said he would issue a decision Tuesday. The decision is expected to be reviewed by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who is New Jersey’s secretary of state.
One of the challenges was brought by three South Jersey citizens, and the other by a law professor who lives in Maryland and is running for president as a write-in candidate in New Jersey. Both parties argued that because Cruz was born in Canada, he is not a natural-born citizen, making him ineligible for the presidency.
Cruz’s mother was born in Delaware, while his father was born in Cuba. The senator released his birth certificate in 2013.
Shalom Stone, a New Jersey attorney representing Cruz, argued that the citizens – Fernando Powers of Blackwood, Donna Ward of Mantua, and Bruce Stom of Winslow Township – and Prof. Victor Williams didn’t have standing to challenge Cruz’s candidacy. Stone also said the state didn’t have authority to decide the question.
As for “natural-born citizen,” Stone said the words in the U.S. Constitution “have meaning given to them by English common law” at the time of their adoption. He directed Masin to his brief for cases supporting Cruz’s position.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently declined an appeal by a Pittsburgh man who challenged Cruz’s eligibility to appear on the ballot in the April 26 primary. A Commonwealth Court judge had ruled that Cruz is a natural-born citizen.
Masin, the New Jersey judge, said the Pennsylvania decision was the only one he knew of that addressed the merits of the arguments against Cruz’s eligibility. Other challenges have been dismissed on procedural grounds, Masin said.
Two of the challengers to Cruz’s eligibility in New Jersey, Williams and Powers, said they supported GOP candidate Donald Trump, who has raised questions about his rival’s eligibility. But Williams said he was Trump’s opponent in states where he is running as a write-in candidate, including New Jersey.
Williams, a professor at the Columbus School of Law in Washington, told the hearing that while Cruz was an American citizen, he was not a natural born citizen.
He said he was “pushing back against legal history.” He was motivated by reading about 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s father, George Romney, who was born in Mexico.
“No one actually challenged him,” Williams said of Romney. “This isn’t just about this election.”
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