Here in plain English is the Kenyan Ambassador saying that Obama is born in Kenya.
Birth Cert. Btt
It appears to me that the practical effect the framers may have intended was to limit the presidency to those who were at least second-generation Americans.
Basing eligibility on attaining citizenship BY birth (i.e., by operation of “nature” alone), as opposed to citizenship AT birth based on birthplace (i.e., by operation of law / the sovereign’s recognition of the children of aliens as citizens), ensured so far as possible that the individual was at least “once removed” from ties to the old country.
And, of course, there is practical wisdom in that. As we see even today, hundreds of years later, the second-generation Americans usually do not have anywhere near the ties to the old country that first-generation Americans often do.
Therefore, to say natural born status is determined by both descent and birthplace seems to me to wrongly conflate citizenship attained by nature (descent) with citizenship attained by law (the legal import of one’s birthplace).
Place of birth determines citizenship only because positive law says it does. The sovereign, whether a king or a state, could have made a different decision. This demonstrates this is citizenship attained by operation of law.
Once “law,” yes, it will be enforced and elaborated upon by the courts and even come to be viewed as a “right.” That, however, does not change the fact that, in the first instance, the sovereign had the authority to deny citizenship to the children of aliens born in its jurisdiction.
Moreover, there is only one aspect in which the effect of natural born citizenship (by descent) status diverges from citizenship attained at birth, but without descent (by law): that is the very unusual, specific and important requirement regarding eligibility to serve as President and Commander in Chief.
IOW, there are no differences between citizenship attained by descent at birth and citizenship attained by law at birth EXCEPT (assuming the correctness of our working definition) that the former individual is eligible to be president and the latter is not.
Again, this construction would make perfect sense as it would limit the presidency to those who are at least second-generation Americans. That doesn’t seem too much ask, either from the framers’ point of view or ours today. Which, of course, matters not a whit anyway. No matter the burden the standard may impose, generally or in a particular case, the Constitution still must be vouchsafed.