[philman_36]

The citizenship of Virginia Minor was never in question and was not decided by the court.
My what a nuanced statement you have there. While it's true that her citizenship wasn't decided by the court the court sure did determine what her citizenship was prior to making the decision, didn't it.

Or haven't you read the case?
No wonder you're so confused. You need to read this because you don't even seem to know the question before the court.
The direct question is, therefore, presented whether all citizens are necessarily voters.

Get your horse out from behind your cart.

[SoJoCo]

My what a nuanced statement you have there. While it's true that her citizenship wasn't decided by the court the court sure did determine what her citizenship was prior to making the decision, didn't it.

Well, no, the court didn't. The court acknowledged that she was a citizen from the very beginning. To quote Chief Justice Waite: "In this particular, therefore, the rights of Mrs. Minor do not depend upon the amendment. She has always been a citizen from her birth, and entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizenship. The amendment prohibited the State, of which she is a citizen, from abridging any of her privileges and immunities as a citizen of the United States; but it did not confer citizenship on her. That she had before its adoption."

But the important quote from Chief Justice Waite's decision is in the first paragraph, in fact the first few sentences.

"The question is presented in this case, whether, since the adoption of the fourteenth amendment, a woman, who is a citizen of the United States and of the State of Missouri, is a voter in that State, notwithstanding the provision of the constitution and laws of the State, which confine the right of suffrage to men alone. We might, perhaps, decide the case upon other grounds, but this question is fairly made. From the opinion we find that it was the only one decided in the court below, and it is the only one which has been argued here."

The court was not concerned with what kind of citizen she was, since whether she was natural born or naturalized was irrelevant to the question before the court and the fact that she was a citizen was never in question. Since the court was only deciding whether citizenship also conveyed the right of suffrage then any comments made on natural born citizenship were made in dicta. And even in that case, the court did not say that children born in the U.S. of non-citizen parents were not natural born citizens. It merely noted that some people believed that they were, and that it was not the duty of the court to clarify the question at that time.