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.
Absolute "Balderdash!" Where do you people dream these things up?
The 14th amendment to the Constitution never addressed the subject of Presidential eligibility and it does not make one born in the United States a "Natural Born Citizen". It only makes them a "Citizen"!
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1, Clause 1
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1, Clause 2
The decision in the case of Wong Kim Ark reads as follows: “The child of an alien, if born in the country, is as much a citizen as the natural born child of a citizen, and by operation of the same principle." Justice Horace Gray Wong Kim Ark Case, 169 U.S. 649 (1898)
What he has said is this. A native born citizen and a natural born citizen share the same distinction of being born of the soil ("Jus Soli"). But they do not share the same distinction of being born of citizen parents (Jus Sanguinis"). In order to be considered a "Natural Born Citizen" you must have both. Wong Kim Ark had one.....being born of the soil to alien parents.
The same principal alluded to by Chief Justice Gray is "Jus Soli" (of the soil).....not "Jus Sanguinis" (of the blood). There are two principals here.......count 'em!
Good Grief! Here is the last paragraph of the decision. Google it if you wish to read the rest:
The court ordered Wong Kim Ark to be discharged, upon the ground that he was a citizen of the United States. 1 Fed.Rep. 382. The United States appealed to this court, and the appellee was admitted to bail pending the appeal.
Now.....take a magnifying glass and see if you can find the words "Natural Born" here.
Thanks.
So we have Natural born, as described by Founders, such as John Jay.
Then you say the 14th provides born and naturalized.
So we have three. Very good.
You fail to answer the question.
I take it that question is too uncomfortable. Answering it would prove me right.