I have not studied Constitutional Law, but I did go to citizenship classes prior to becoming naturalized, and had an excellent teacher, and it is my humble opinion I feel we must look at the big picture. If f’instance an American woman moved to the middle east, had a child by one of their fanatical types, and the child was raised with those beliefs, then that child, claiming statutory American citizenship, and happened to be well prepared and silver tongued, could gain the Presidency and harm the nation. Some would claim it has already happened. It’s a loophole that needs to be put before the Courts and closed. What are your feelings on Rubio, born here of alien parents (I don’t know if his parents arrived here legally or not from Cuba...some say they were escaping Castro’s Cuba, but others say that was after they were already here???)
I agree that there are challenging scenarios that should be addressed. I also don’t believe we can protect ourselves from every possible bad scenario by law alone. The law is a crutch for imperfect people. We are imperfect, so we need it. But what if we had a natural born citizen who was a Muslim and secretly a jihadist bent on destroying our country? How do we defend against that? We cannot protect ourselves from such persons except through diligent use of our liberty to vet and prudently choose who we put in power. The law can only take us so far.
As for Rubio, I believe he does not meet the criteria set by Vattell, because his parents were not citizens at the time of his birth, AFAIK. But on the more definite ground of NBC status by being born in the country, regardless of parentage, he is most certainly eligible, assuming all the public facts are true. Someone with standing could challenge him, but it would probably be avoided by the Supreme Court as a political question, meaning it’s up to Congress and the voters to figure out who is eligible.
So again, it comes back to us. Our vote is the last line of defense. If we have issues with the real loyalty of a candidate to America, we need to work to defeat that person. And while we can debate all day long about the Cruz mailers, or the Cruz immigration policy, I don’t see anything in Cruz that suggests we should worry about him backing a Canadian coup against America. Can anybody really see that happening, ay? :) Now if Red Green got naturalized and tried to run for President, that would concern me. Just sayin ...
Peace,
SR