--- title: Donald Trump Might Be Able to Sue Ted Cruz, Experts Say description: While some legal experts agree Donald Trump has grounds for a suit against Ted Cruz, they're divided on how a court would handle the claim canonical: https://time.com/4220213/donald-trump-ted-cruz-legal-standing-citizenship-suit/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-13T17:23:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:57.662Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Might Be Able to Sue Ted Cruz, Experts Say og:description: While some legal experts agree Donald Trump has grounds for a suit against Ted Cruz, they're divided on how a court would handle the claim og:url: https://time.com/4220213/donald-trump-ted-cruz-legal-standing-citizenship-suit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec80f9d6e2304f35/69887d8b524fc07f72df6bf1/donald-trump-tampa-rally.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds A Campaign Rally In Tampa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Might Be Able to Sue Ted Cruz, Experts Say twitter:description: While some legal experts agree Donald Trump has grounds for a suit against Ted Cruz, they're divided on how a court would handle the claim twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec80f9d6e2304f35/69887d8b524fc07f72df6bf1/donald-trump-tampa-rally.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Might Be Able to Sue Ted Cruz, Legal Experts Say > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a037efd6-2008-4d43-9da7-212b7cd45f07&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch Kids Reflect on Meeting the Presidential Candidates [Watch (HLS stream): Watch Kids Reflect on Meeting the Presidential Candidates](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/UhBog7TV.m3u8) (1:35)  _Published 2016-02-09_  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 13, 2016 5:23 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets people during a campaign rally at the University of South Florida Sun Dome on Feb. 12 in Tampa, Florida. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets people during a campaign rally at the University of South Florida Sun Dome on Feb. 12 in Tampa, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 13, 2016 5:23 PM UTC Donald Trump continued to push the [contentious issue of Ted Cruz’s presidential eligibility](http://time.com/4202049/donald-trump-ted-cruz-not-allowed-to-run/) on Friday, threatening that he has [legal standing to sue Cruz](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/698231571594276866) for not being a “natural born citizen.” “If @TedCruz doesn’t clean up his act, stop cheating, & doing negative ads, I have standing to sue him for not being a natural born citizen,” Trump [posted on Twitter](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/698231571594276866). Does Trump really have grounds to sue Cruz? According to some legal experts, the answer is yes, but they’re divided on how a court would handle such a claim. The real estate mogul has previously raised questions about whether Cruz’s Canadian birth disqualifies him from being considered a natural born citizen, warning that Democrats might file a lawsuit to dispute Cruz’s presidential eligibility. Some [voters have already filed suits](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2016/images/01/15/1-main.pdf) against Cruz, but experts tend to agree that a suit filed by a rival candidate, such as Trump, would hold more weight. “For standing, you have to have injury, and his injury would be that he could quite possibly lose votes that would go to Cruz that might’ve gone to him,” said Mary Brigid McManamon, a constitutional law professor at Delaware Law School. She said a voter’s claim is less significant because their injury is the same as that of everyone in the state. Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said Trump’s standing is plausible but not legally guaranteed. “Its plausibility gets greater the closer we get to the point where it’s clear that Cruz himself (and not Cruz together with Bush, Kasich, Rubio, and perhaps others) is the real obstacle to Trump’s nomination and thus a clear source of concrete injury to Trump’s prospects for the Republican presidential nomination,” Tribe said in an email. Both [McManamon](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ted-cruz-is-not-eligible-to-be-president/2016/01/12/1484a7d0-b7af-11e5-99f3-184bc379b12d%5Fstory.html) and [Tribe](http://today.law.harvard.edu/a-question-of-citizenship/) have argued that Cruz is not a natural born citizen based on a strict interpretation of the Constitution and is, therefore, not eligible to be president. McManamon said Trump should win a suit if he chooses to bring one, but she’s cautious about predicting what a court would do. “It would be interesting to see if a court would actually take it,” she said. “They really don’t want to be in the middle of a political hot potato.” Jonathan Adler, a constitutional law professor at Case Western Reserve University, is skeptical that a court would touch the issue at all. He said Trump would likely file a suit in one state to try to get Cruz excluded from that state’s ballot. “Whether or not he would have standing would ultimately depend on that state’s rules,” Adler said. “There are some courts who might say this is really a question for voters to determine.” Adler, who has [argued that Cruz is a natural born citizen](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/01/07/yes-ted-cruz-is-a-natural-born-citizen/), said he doesn’t see any basis for a claim brought in federal court, but he thinks Trump could argue injury at the state level. “Trump has at least a more plausible claim of injury because he can claim that he lost votes because of one erroneous decision on ballot eligibility,” Adler said, adding that he doesn’t expect a suit would get very far. “I happen to think that the best arguments on the merits support Cruz’s eligibility, but even apart from that, I just don’t see courts intervening on this sort of thing,” Adler said, noting that Trump would be fighting an uphill battle. “I mean, he’s done crazier things, so we’ll see.” ## Transcript Well, I'm here because my parents and my family are big Bernie fans. Did you mean Jeb Bush? I mean, Jeb Bush. So sorry. I've seen Kasich, Rubio, Jeb, Sanders, Hillary, and Cruz. I'm here to see Hillary. I'm Seeing Trump. I'm here with my family to support Jeb Bush. Bernie Sanders said... I've been to Carly Fiorina. He's gonna try and make... Marco Rubio. College. Chris Christie. I think it was free. I said Carly Fiorina. To Ted Cruz. I'm half and half. I like Kasich, and I like Bernie Sanders. I wanna see a women in the white house. What do you think of Bernie Sanders? My mom likes him. > What did you think of Hilary after seeing her in person? She is very loud, not really caring what other people think. It's great that a women can be president but it has to be the right women to do it. I like [ UNKNOWN ] cause he's reasonable. He doesn't just hate conservative view and everything, he says that we need to work with both parties if we're ever going to accomplish anything. Though Bernie Sanders is very persuasive, Jeb Bush was amusing and funny. I feel bad for the people who don't get all the candidates like New Hampshire. It's pretty interesting, you've got different personalities, different types of beliefs, you've got Different things they say so you got a choice on who you want to be President. 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