[Larry - Moe and Curly]

“They threw in “natural born” to distinguish presidential-eligible citizens from naturalized citizens, who were not to be eligible.”

If your reasoning is correct, “born Citizen” would have the same effect, right? Why include “natural”?

[highball]

“They threw in “natural born” to distinguish presidential-eligible citizens from naturalized citizens, who were not to be eligible.”

If your reasoning is correct, “born Citizen” would have the same effect, right? Why include “natural”?

Yes, it would.

The Constitution only considers two kinds of citizenship for anyone born after its ratification: via naturalization and via birth.

If you're going to content that a little extra flourish somehow creates a whole new class of citizen, then you're going to have to point to the passage in the Constitution where they lay it out clearly, and where they define any other perks/responsibilities of that third kind of citizen. Because if you can't, the contention falls apart.