[Spaulding]

And Justice Waite continued: “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. For the purposes of this case it is not necessary to solve these doubts.”

Non-Sequitur, along with James and Mr. Rogers are helping us to read more carefully by testing our ability to find their misdirection. Non-Sequiter is discussing natural born citizens, and then cites the phrase in Minor “Some authorities go further and include as citizens...” Someone not paying attention might have assumed Justice Waite was referring to natural born citizens, but Non-Sequitar wanted us to notice that Justice Waite was contrasting the certainty about who were natural born citizens with the doubts around who were citizens. The framers gave congress the authority to define citizens, but not natural born citizens, at least not without amending the Constitution.

[Non-Sequitur]

The framers gave congress the authority to define citizens, but not natural born citizens, at least not without amending the Constitution.

Who did they give that authority to, pray tell?