Nope. I believe he said there is doubt whether those born to noncitizens are NBCs, not about whether they are citizens.
He is quite right, which is why a Court decision is needed to remove that doubt.
BTW, this was the perfect place for him to point out that those born within the country to noncitizens are not NBCs. He passed it by, only noting there was some doubt on this issue.
Read it again:
... it was never doubted that all children, born in a country of parents who were its citizens, became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners.
These are the natural born citizens. They become citizen upons their birth.
Some authorities go further, and include as citizens children born within the jurisdiction, without reference to the citizenship of their parents. As to this class, there have been doubts, but never as to the first.
"This class" are children born without reference to the parents' citizenship. Their citizenship is in doubt. He does not suggest that they are natural born citizens, only that they might be citizens. This a distinct class from the group that he says is NBCs. For what you believe to make sense, he would have need to have changed the order of his sentences:
... it was never doubted that all children, born in a country of parents who were its citizens, became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also.Some authorities go further, and include as citizens children born within the jurisdiction, without reference to the citizenship of their parents. As to this class, there have been doubts, but never as to the first. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners.He is quite right, which is why a Court decision is needed to remove that doubt.
This court decision did remove the doubt as well as the Wong Kim Ark decision. Children born of noncitizen parents can be citizens via the 14th amendment (and later statutory means), but they are NOT natural born citizens.
BTW, this was the perfect place for him to point out that those born within the country to noncitizens are not NBCs.
Well, no, this was the perfect place to make an AFFIRMATIVE declaration that 14th amendment citizens are natural born citizens because Virginia Minor claimed she was a 14th amendment citizen. Justice Waite rejected the claim. He used a definition that is clear and limited. Justice Gray used that same definition and AFFIRMED it in Wong Kim Ark.