FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Broward County judge has dismissed a complaint challenging the eligibility of Republican presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio.
Broward County resident Michael Voeltz was challenging whether Cruz and Rubio are eligible to run for president.
Voeltz, a Republican, claimed that the U.S. senators are naturalized citizens and therefore should have their names removed from Florida's March 15 primary ballot. The U.S. Constitution requires that a presidential candidate be a "natural born citizen."
"If he's not eligible then he can't hold the office," Voeltz said during a hearing Friday at the Broward County courthouse.
Rubio was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants, while Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban-born father.
"Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are not natural born citizens," Voeltz said.
Rubio attorney Jason Torchinsky argued otherwise.
"It’s very simple. He was born here inside the United States," Torchinsky argued. "The 14th Amendment says anybody born in the United States is a citizen at birth."
Cruz's attorney cited U.S. law to support her argument.
"The first Congress actually stated during one of their sessions that children born to citizens of the U.S. that may be born beyond sea, outside of the United States, or out of the limits of the U.S., shall be considered as a natural born citizen," attorney Nicole Martell said.
Judge John Bowman tossed out the case Friday after hearing arguments from both sides.
"This does ultimately reside in the hands of Congress, so I do dismiss your case with prejudice, sir," Bowman said.
