NBC definition has nothing to do with the case.
What is Obiter Dictum? See Black’s Law Dictionary or cases discussing the definition.
http://blackslawdictionary.org/dictum/
The argument is, that as a woman, born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, is a citizen of the United States and of the State in which she resides, she has the right of suffrage as one of the privileges and immunities of her citizenship, which the State cannot by its laws or constitution abridge.
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But, in our opinion, it did not need this amendment to give them that position. Before its adoption the Constitution of the United States did not in terms prescribe who should be citizens of the United States or of the several States, yet there were necessarily such citizens without such provision.
Right there is the whole reason Waite defined NBC. Her rights and privileges were not created with the 14th amendment or with 14th amendment citizenship, but they existed before for natural-born citizens, before and since the adoption of the 14th amendment. Nowhere was there a right to vote from any of these rights and privileges. What other point is there for talking about NBC and the citizenship of the parents???
“NBC definition has nothing to do with the case.”
I agree with Leo Donofrio’s analysis that the NBC definition in Minor was a holding and was relied on explicitly by the Court to establish what category of citizen Mrs Minor fell into. The Minor Court “reached” and “held” that the category of citizenship that applied to Mrs. Minor was NBC.
They did not “reach” or “hold” whether or not the children of aliens or foreigner were citizens but with their definition of NBC IMO they DID “reach” and “hold” that the (legal) children of aliens and foreigners were excluded from being NBC.
See Leo Donofrio here:
http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/minor-v-happersett-revisited-2/