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That’s a good observation, but I think you’re reading too much into the Preamble of the Constitution.

The purpose of the Preamble was to show a reason why a Constitution was being written. It was not to legally define who would and would not be considered a natural born citizen, and in fact, no thought whatsoever would have been given to that particular question by the person who drafted that sentence.

Sorry. As I say, it’s a good observation.

The purpose of the Preamble was to show a reason why a Constitution was being written.

And the purpose of Article I was to establish Congress. The purpose of Article II was to establish the Presidency. The purpose of Article V was to establish the amendment process.

Every part had a purpose.

Who says what the limits of the Preamble are? Has this been tested?

Article VI Section 2
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Preamble is certainly a "Thing in the Constitution." I don't know why it is so easily dismissed as irrelevant.

It seems to me that the Preamble is virgin territory for someone to argue before the Supreme Court.

It clearly lays out whom the Constitution was meant to serve. The terms used in the Constitution should first be assessed against this.

-PJ

...no thought whatsoever would have been given to that particular question by the person who drafted that sentence.

I've written my thoughts on this matter before. I think great thought was put into crafting that sentence. The clues that I see are the use of Capitalizations. Capitalizations represented proper nouns and references to God. I think they took great care to write that sentence.

From my post from an older abortion thread:

I posted here the idea that the Constitution actually does have a ban on abortion, or at least a protection of life.
In the Preamble, it says "...and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."
I suggested that the "Blessings of Liberty" refers to rights granted from God (Blessings and Liberty being capitalized, and Liberty being one of three capitalized rights from the Declaration from our Creator), and "secure... our posterity" means for our children and their children.
I point this out because it was the practice to capitalize all references to God, such as "Him" and "Creator." Following this practice, the gifts of the Creator, namely Rights to Life, Liberty, and Happiness, are capitalized, too. Furthermore, in the preamble to the Constitution, the word Blessings is also capitalized, which I take to mean from the Creator, and Liberty is also capitalized, which is one of the three rights from the Creator mentioned in the Declaration. All this, taken together, tells me that the Founders intended the Constitution to protect the Blessings of the unalienable rights that come from the Creator, and not just to us but to our children and their children.
How can we "secure" "Blessings" for "our posterity" if we allow "our posterity" to be aborted?

-PJ