>>”This is a distinction but there is no underlying difference”
Of course there’s a difference. Any lawyer can tell you the difference is between a right and a requirement. But forget that. But you don’t have to be a lawyer to understand that a right and a requirement are two different things. All it takes is a modicum of intelligence and familiarity with the English language.
If being a citizen for seven years gave you the Constitutional right to be a member of Congress the article in question would say something along the lines of:
“Any Person is qualified to be a Representative who shall have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who is when elected, an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.”
but it doesn’t say that. It says:
“No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.”
Don’t be stupid.