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If the law says that two US citizen parents give you the right to citizenship at birth, that’s what I’d call a natural-born citizen. If this weren’t true, all the kids born of soldiers overseas would not be natural born citizens. This concept of citizenship by birth when born outside the US has been in place since the 1700s.

OK. How about a citzenship statute that says all persons born with blue eyes within 100 miles east of the Yellow River are US Citizens at birth. Natural born? Any doubt that Congress has the power to enact such a statute? Do you think it likely the Supreme Court would hold they were Natural Born for purposes of Article II, Sec. 1, par. 4 even if they had never set foot in the United States?

That's why Constitutional Lawyers don't think the citizenship statute controls the Constitutional issue. I don't.

Unfair to military service? Most military do not take their wives--particularly pregnant wives. But unfair to the children like McCain--yes. That's why you have the amendment process for the Constitution.

That's why Constitutional Lawyers don't think the citizenship statute controls the Constitutional issue. I don't.

The first Congress passed a law in 1790 stating "And the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond sea, or outside the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens" in Session II, Chapter 3.

Most military do not take their wives--particularly pregnant wives.

Most military do take their wives, except to the few locations that don't allow it. They are there for usually 3+ years, plenty of time to have kids. The Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, has a busy-enough maternity ward.

"That's why Constitutional Lawyers don't think the citizenship statute controls the Constitutional issue. I don't.

You're not a "naturalization at birth" type, are you?

The SCOTUS has referred to the Congress' power in defining citizensip (and I'm not just talking about Constitutionally enumerated naturalization powers). and...

"There is an interesting loophole here in that the Constitution does not mandate race-neutral naturalization. Until 1952, the Naturalization Acts written by Congress still allowed only white persons to become naturalized as citizens (except for two years in the 1870s which the Supreme Court declared to be a mistake)."--Naturalization, wikipedia (yeah, not a great source, but the point is there)