And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens.
This would seem to be an act which 'naturalize someone who meets these specific requirements into the status of NBC- not just into `naturalized citizenship' such as an illegal alien would be naturalized' --
You may notice that the words "shall be considered as" have been emphasized. Anybody who tells you that the Act is a definition is misleading you. Congress did so deliberately (misled you). In the ordinary use of the English language, the phrase "shall be considered as" is as assignment of pretend.
There is a social security regulation that says, essentially, a person up to the age of 22 shall be considered as a child. That doesn't mean a person is in fact a child until they reach the age of 22, it means that the law will play make believe. This is called "legal fiction," and it is so common in statutory law, so as to be unremarkable.
If we look at only the 1790 law, and admit the fact (and it is a fact) that "shall be considered as" is legal fiction, then what the founders said about the subject, in the 1790 act, was this:
the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States are not natural born citizens, but for purposes of law, we will pretend they are
The Act, on its face, disproves the contention that Cruz is an NBC. It doesn't help his case, it demolishes it!
-- And the counter argument, the one trump is making, was that both parents would need to be citizens ... --
The statute is ambiguous as to one or both parents, but it doesn't matter. When you grok what the 1790 Act says, actually in plain English, when you grok that is expressly excludes what is described (children born abroad) from the conclusion (NBC), then it doesn't matter if the child had one parent, two parents, three parents (donor sperm), four parents (donor sperm and donor egg), or even zero parents (test tube baby).
-- I'm not sure how the justices argued away this act In the Bellei case in order to strip him of his citizenship --
The legal fiction created by this act was repealed in 1795. The justices didn't have argue it away, and plus, Bellei is, say the justices, naturalized.
At this point, many people deploy "magic thinking" and relapse into believing that a person can be "natural" (which is better thought of as "under the constitution") and naturalized (which is better thought of as "NOT under the constitution, but under Act of Congress") at the same time. They want to believe, so badly, that a person born abroad of a citizen parent is an NBC, that they become, on this point, literally kooks.
It's not an issue in real life. Just these people want to preserve the dream that their child can grow up to be president. The kids are citizens, but they are not 100% American at birth. A person born in Canada of a Cuban father and US Mother is not 100% American at birth. It's not their fault. They may turn into the best advocate for America, but they were born mixed. We the people can abandon the constitution via stupidity. Hell, I think we have.
I won’t get into the weeds but from what I’ve read over the years it’s been obvious to me the founders intent was for both parents to be US citizens to have a NBC child. BTW, Rubio and Jindal have the same problem, IMHO.
But! Congress and the courts have chosen to ignore that intent over the years and adjusted the laws to reflect it to be needing to be only one parent.
Otherwise, 0bama would also be unqualified to be president and we’ve lived the lie for 8 years now.
I won’t get into the weeds but from what I’ve read over the years it’s been obvious to me the founders intent was for both parents to be US citizens to have a NBC child. BTW, Rubio and Jindal have the same problem, IMHO.
But! Congress and the courts have chosen to ignore that intent over the years and adjusted the laws to reflect it to be needing to be only one parent.
Otherwise, 0bama would also be unqualified to be president and we’ve lived the lie for 8 years now.