a. by a court whether a person who acquired U.S. citizenship by birth abroad to U.S. citizens.
d. (snip) In any event, the fact that someone is a natural born citizen pursuant to a statute
Citizen pursuant to a statute means naturalized citizens. People born inside the U.S. do not need a statute to naturalize them or make them natural born. They are that way simply by being born here. The 14th Amendment is NOT a statute. That's why we have a Bill of Rights, and other protections such as Birthright Citizenship built into the Constitution. And why the Constitution trumps "statutes."
It figures. You missed the whole point. The issue is that the U.S. Dept. of State clearly takes the position that some citizens, who are considered natural-born under our law not naturalized, may not be natural-born citizens according to the Constitutional test for presidential eligibility. The reason they take that position is because the courts haven’t ruled on the matter. The definition of natural-born citizen is not settled law.
Those born abroad to two citizen parents are not naturalized under our law. They are granted natural-born citizenship at birth and do not have to follow the same procedural path to citizenship that naturalized citizens must.
In discusing citizenship, MvH makes reference to those born abroad but no court has ruled concusively on their NBC status:
“and that the children of citizens of the United States that might be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States, should be considered as natural-born citizens.”
The definition of NBC is not settled law.