The simple truth is that the most important safeguard of our national security – the President of the United States – is only eligible to that office if the Constitutional requirement of a natural born citizen is met. But in our entire history of a nation, this issue has never been judicially determined.
SCOTUS in Minor and Wong Kim Ark – both decided years after the adoption of the 14th Amendment – tell us the definition of natural born citizen is not written into the Constitution. Any attempt to simplify the issue by stating that all 14th Amendment native born citizens are also POTUS eligible on that basis is a fraudulent statement.
The issue is in serious need of litigation. It’s in the best interest of the nation to have the issue settled. If Obama’s eligibility is not heard on the merits in our judicial system, then the answer to who is a natural born citizen will be settled by virtue of Obama being President.
A very handy way of putting it: 14th Amendment citizenship at birth is clearly not natural born citizenship, because both Minor and Wong Kim Ark, decided after ratification of that Amendment, declare that the definition is not written into the Constitution.
I've made a similar point many times in the past, regarding Minor, but hinged upon the fact that the defintion of two citizen parents and born on U.S. soil being never in doubt, coming after the 14th Amendment, precluded any such interpretation of citizenship at birth under the 14th Amendment.
Take the two together, and that should effectively lay to rest any contention that the natural born citizen eligibility requirement was somehow unintentionally altered and broadened, by virtue of the 14th Amendment. And, additionally, it should effectively lay to rest any contention that citizenship at birth, purely in and of itself, is natural born citizenship.