If “natural-born citizen” requires two citizen parents, then would a child of a citizen and a non-citizen be a “natural-born citizen” of no country at all? What if a child were born to a US citizen single mother and the citizenship (and perhaps even the identity) of the father is unknown?
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If “natural-born citizen” requires two citizen parents, then would a child of a citizen and a non-citizen be a “natural-born citizen” of no country at all?
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Yes - that would be correct. The child would be born with multiple allegiances, and therefore would be ‘natural born citizen’ to none.
The reason for the NBC clause is very simple, and is stated clearly by John Jay in the Federalist Papers. Since the president is also the Commander in Chief of the US military, the founders determined it to be wise to restrict the office of President to those who did not have any form of allegiance with another country.
If you were born in another country, or one or both of your parents are not only citizens of another country, but have not become citizens of the US - would all your loyalties lie with the US? The founders were simply trying to put in a small safegaurd that whomever became Commander in Chief of the entire US military had only one loyalty - and that was to the US.
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What if a child were born to a US citizen single mother and the citizenship (and perhaps even the identity) of the father is unknown?
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Those are two different things, if the father is unknown, then there would be no other allegiance, except towards the US - therefore the child would be NBC.
For the second, where the father is known, but his citizenship is unknown - then the child’s NBC status would also be unknown.