Ted Cruz is a day late and a dollar short if he thinks renouncing his Canadian citizenship has any bearing

on his putative natural born citizen status in the US. A natural born citizen does not acquire citizenship through statute (Congress only has power to naturalize) nor through timing. Citizenship at birth does not refer to the time when was born but to the acquisition of citizenship by virtue of the circumstances of birth whereby the natural born citizen was bound by the tie of natural allegiance. Natural allegiance arises from birth under the protection of the sovereign which can be a government of the people or a monarch. The concept of natural allegiance is rooted in the common law: As therefore the prince is always under a constant tie to protect his natural born subjects, at all times and in all countries, for this reason their allegiance due to him. Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the laws of England Book 1 at 370. This principle was recognized by the founders of this country, including James Madison who remarked, It is an established maxim that birth is a criterion of allegiance. Birth however derives its force sometimes from place and sometimes from parentage, but in general place is the most certain criterion; it is what applies in the United States; it will therefore be unnecessary to investigate any other. [emphasis added] Some say that Ted Cruz is natural born because he was a citizen at the moment of birth, citing an opinion of the Congressional Research Service, which based its opinion substantially on the basis of the natural born language of the Naturalization Act of 1790 . According to the CRS, the presence of the natural born language in the Act implied that the members of the First Congress understood that persons born anywhere on earth to US citizen parents were tied per common law by the bond of natural allegiance through parentage. This was not the case. Firstly, natural born status through parentage was not in accord with the common law. Secondly as per intent, the natural born language of the Act was inserted by mistake, and James Madison with other congressional committee members had that provision repealed with passage of the Naturalization Act of 1795. (See the unpublished brief by Honorable Pinckney McElwee which was read by Rep. John Dowdy on the House floor June 14, 1967 and which thoroughly addresses both of these points.) It has long been understood that the native-born citizens are the natural- born citizens and those born of citizens abroad are naturalized per statute: Thus, where the citizens of the one country, are naturalized in the other; and where issue are born in the one, of parents who are citizens of the other country. Lynch v. Clarke, 3 N.Y.Leg.Obs. 236, 1 Sand. Ch. 583 (N.Y. Ch. 1844). Unfortunately for Mr. Cruz, the question of renunciation of his Canadian citizenship is moot as he is ineligible for the office of President of the United States.