[sometime lurker]

You quoted Gray as saying the justices were committed to the view. The complete quote says none of the justices were committed to the view.

That neither Mr. Justice Miller nor any of the justices who took part in the decision of The Slaughterhouse Cases understood the court to be committed to the view that all children born in the United States of citizens or subjects of foreign States were excluded from the operation of the first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment is manifest from a unanimous judgment of the Court...

You omitted the "neither, nor" and completely changed the meaning. First I thought you were guilty merely of sloppy research, and took the quote from some other site or poster without knowing the context. Then I thought you were guilty of deliberate deception. Now that you so vigorously refuse to see the original meaning, I have to suspect you simply don't understand what you are reading.

were the same judges who UNANIMOUSLY decided the Minor case which Gray said excluded NBCs from the operation of the citizen clause of the 14th amendment.

Reading comprehension problems again. Nowhere did the judgement say that NBCs were "excluded" from the operation of the citizen clause. What they said was

They are persons, and by the Fourteenth Amendment "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" are expressly declared to be "citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." But in our opinion it did not need this amendment to give them that position.

and

in that sense, women, if born of citizen parents within the jurisdiction of the United States, have always been considered citizens of the United states, as much so before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution as since.

So it says Virgina Minor would have been considered a citizen with or without the 14th amendment. It doesn't say that NBCs are excluded.

This is known as a composition fallacy examples of which are :

• Individual F things have characteristics A, B, C, etc.
• Therefore, the (whole) class of F things has characteristics A, B, C, etc.

and

• The parts of the whole X have characteristics A, B, C, etc.
• Therefore the whole X must have characteristics A, B, C.

[edge919]

You quoted Gray as saying the justices were committed to the view. The complete quote says none of the justices were committed to the view.

It doesn't say "none" of the justices were committed to the view. Miller and "any of the justices" ALL took part in the UNANIMOUS Minor decision that excluded children born in the United States of citizens from the the operation of the birth clause of the 14th amendment.

Reading comprehension problems again. Nowhere did the judgement say that NBCs were "excluded" from the operation of the citizen clause.

I just showed that they were since the UNANIMOUS Minor decision that Miller and "any of the justices" took part in rejected Virginia Minor's claim of 14th amendment citizen because she fit the NBC definition of "all children born in the country to parents who were its citizens." This matches the substance of the phrase about the court being committed to the view: "all children born in the United States of citizens ..."

So it says Virgina Minor would have been considered a citizen with or without the 14th amendment. It doesn't say that NBCs are excluded.

No, GRAY said the court "excluded from the operation of the first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment is manifest from a unanimous judgment." The UNANIMOUS judgment he cited was the Minor decision. The Minor decision does NOT says Minor would have been considered a citizen with or without the 14th amendment. It specifically said the amendment (under which she claimed her citizenship) did NOT confer citizenship on her.

The composition fallacy belongs to you. So far you've claimed:

1. "None of the justices were committed to the view ... is manifest from a unanimous judgment of the Court"
2. "Nowhere did the judgement say that NBCs were "excluded" from the operation of the citizen clause."
3. "So it says Virgina Minor would have been considered a citizen with or without the 14th amendment."
4. "It doesn't say that NBCs are excluded."

Here's what the decisions ACTUALLY said:

1. "the court to be committed to the view ...
2. "... all children born in the United States of citizens or subjects of foreign States were excluded from the operation of the first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment ..."
3. "In this particular, therefore, the rights of Mrs. Minor do not depend upon the amendment." And "The amendment prohibited the State, of which she is a citizen, from abridging any of her privileges and immunities as a citizen of the United States; but it did not confer citizenship on her."

   Further, these citations are reinforced by the Context of these decisions. Gray said Minor's citizenship was due to being born in the United States to citizen parents.

4. "all children born in the United States of citizens or subjects of foreign States were excluded from the operation of the first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment"