This is probably not the timing Ted Cruz would have chosen. Friday, as in the day before the South Carolina Republican primary, an Illinois judge is hearing a challenge to the Canadian-born Cruz’s eligibility to be president.
Lawrence Joyce, an Illinois voter who has objected to Cruz's placement on the Illinois primary ballot next month, will have his case heard in the Circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago. Joyce's previous objection, made to the state's Board of Elections, was dismissed on February 1.
This one may be dismissed, too. But it’s not the kind of story likely to win over South Carolina conservatives. Cruz loyalists can dismiss it as a Democratic plot to undermine the strongest Republican candidate, or whatever they tell themselves, but undecided voters primed by years of birtherism might pause, even just slightly. And Cruz doesn’t need that as he tries to knock Marco Rubio out of the race and position himself as Donald Trump’s one and only real competitor.