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SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit challenging Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz's eligibility to be president.
The suit, filed by Salt Lake resident Walter Wagner in Salt Lake's federal court, contends that the Texas senator is not a "natural born" citizen within the meaning of the U.S. Constitution.
Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother with U.S. citizenship and a Cuban father.
U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice on the grounds that Wagner did not demonstrate that he would be injured in a personal way by Cruz's campaign. That means the suit can't be refiled.
"Because Senator Cruz's mother was a citizen of the United States at the time of his birth, he is a U.S. citizen," Parrish said in her ruling. "Without a particularized and personalized concrete injury, Mr. Wagner lacks standing to bring his declaratory judgment action."
Cruz is facing numerous lawsuits challenging his eligibility to be president. Many of them have been dismissed.
Wagner, who filed his lawsuit on Jan. 22, cited a Jan. 12 op-ed in the Washington Post written by Widener University's Delaware Law School constitutional law professor Mary Brigid McManamon that argued Cruz had to be born in the U.S. to qualify as a "natural born" citizen.
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GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz rallies Utahns for support
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz began his first visit to Utah as a presidential candidate Saturday with little focus on his campaign, but with strong vocal support for the re-election of Utah Sen. Mike Lee.Wagner is a self-described political "centrist." He said he filed the suit because he found it "unconscionable" that someone aspiring to the highest office in the country would "flaunt the rule for being in that position."
Cruz filed a motion to dismiss Wagner's lawsuit Feb. 24.
In 2008, Wagner filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy and European Center for Nuclear Energy Research, claiming that the government entities were covering up the possibility of the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator creating a black hole and destroying the earth.
The dismissal came a day before Cruz made appearances in Utah Saturday to rally support for his candidacy. Email: dchen@deseretnews.com Twitter: DaphneChen_
