Why isn’t this specified in the Constitution. I lived for about forty years believing something that wasn’t true. Instead or, or in addition to, state laws that prescribe what identification is necessary to run for office, we should work on defining citizenship in the constitution.
Can anyone point to something in the Federalist papers or any of the other founding documents that discusses this. I find it amazing that they did not specify the rules for citizenship.
Citizenship was determined by the States at the time the Constitution was ratified, Vermont Lt. A citizen of one of the several States was ipso facto a citizen of the United States.
There was no federal regulation of citizenship itself, there was only Constitutional restriction upon those who would be eligible for elected office at the federal level. This remained the case even after immigration and naturalization was a power enumerated under the Constitution to the national legislature in order to create a more uniform set of statute law pertaining to citizenship acquired by these means. States made every citizenship determination right up to the 14th Amendment, which was itself in response to certain States denying citizenship to former slaves.
So, of course the Constitution did not speak specifically to something that was clearly enumerated to the States or to The People. It dealt with matters between the States acting in unity as the United States, as did the looser Articles of Confederation that preceded it going back to the end of the Revolution in 1781.