Is there a federal statute that determines how citizenship is determined? Or are these just opinions?
There are many laws that impact citizenship. However, nowhere has “natural born citizen” been actually defined. That’s one reason somehow getting the Court to address this matter would be useful.
Regardless of its impact on this election, this area of the law needs to be settled.
This was probably quite clear to everyone when the Constitution was ratified and in the century that followed. Gradually, though, the popular idea has taken hold that “natural born citizen” status means one was simply born in the U.S.
That was unlikely to have been the framers’ intent when they wrote the Constitution. The question now is how, when and if it can all be sorted out.
I’ve posted a lot on this, so will just leave it at that for now.