With all the arguments about NBC I still find myself wondering why the Founders who were learned men and good at expression and debate would explicitly in a Founding Document make a clear distinction between a ‘natural born citizen’ for POTUSA and just simple ‘citizen’ for congresspersons. Those men surely realized and wanted a difference. I tend to believe the best resolution for the difference is to know/understand what history was at and before the signing of the Constitution. All cases and rulings afterwards were just a matter of other humans/judges trying to fit such cases into the container already set and should not change/distort the container. None of these later cases can individually or collectively change the distinction set by the words in the Constitution. Of course I admit to believing that the Founding Fathers had more integrity for a USA than many present day judges.
“With all the arguments about NBC I still find myself wondering why the Founders who were learned men and good at expression and debate would explicitly in a Founding Document make a clear distinction between a ‘natural born citizen’ for POTUSA and just simple ‘citizen’ for congresspersons.”
Simple. A congressman - Senator or Representative - can be a naturalized citizen. The President cannot, unless he was alive during the Revolution (think Alexander Hamilton, who drafted the NBC clause). There was also a guy in the 1790s who was second in line behind the VP as President who was born in England.
In the original draft of the Constitution, naturalized citizens COULD become President. After debate and discussion, that was changed in the final version. The Presidency requires a native citizen, or in the legal term used in the state laws at the time, a ‘natural born citizen’, updating the older ‘natural born subject’ used prior to independence.
But there was no additional requirement to have citizen parents. That came from a poor translation of Vattel written 10 years AFTER the Constitution in a discussion of Swiss laws, and has never applied to America.