There are “born citizens” and “Natural born citizens “.
The founders recognized the distinction by changing the language in the draft of the constitution, after John Hays letter to Washington.
So what is that difference that the founders recognized?
George Washington recognized? Hamilton recognized? That John Jay recognized?
Enlighten us. What is it?
The Founders made provisions to alter their thinking on any issue via the constitutional amendment process. The 14th Amendment establishes two forms of citizenship: born and naturalized. Since 1865, that is the law of the land.
Here’s a constitutional analogy:
One of the most important structural issues of governance to the Founders was that the House of Representatives be popularly elected but that the Senate be indirectly elected by state legislatures: Article I, Section 3.
As the authors of the Federalist Papers explained, election by state legislatures “is recommended by the double advantage of favoring a select appointment, and of giving to the State governments such an agency in the formation of the federal government as must secure the authority of the former, and may form a convenient link between the two systems” (Federalist No. 62).
Over the years since ratification, indirect election of senators fell out of favor and in 1913, the Constitution was amended by the 17th Amendment to provide for direct, popular election of Senators. The Seventeenth Amendment restates the first paragraph of Article I, section 3 of the Constitution and provides for the election of senators by replacing the phrase “chosen by the Legislature thereof” with “elected by the people thereof.”
It is the 14th Amendment which provides for two and only two forms of citizenship: born and naturalized. There is no distinction in any state’s law or in federal law between a natural born citizen and a Citizen of the United States at birth. This is established as precedent in the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898.
In 2009, regarding the status of Barack Obama, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled: “Based on the language of Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 and the guidance provided by Wong Kim Ark, we conclude that persons born within the United States are ‘natural born citizens’ for Article II, Section 1 purposes, regardless of the citizenship of their parents.”
No other court has ruled otherwise or reversed the Ankeny ruling.