Replies

My response to your question.

For birthers, who pride themselves on relying on the original intent of the Constitution and laws, to ignore the fact that this case was never intended to decide the definition of who was or wasn’t a natural born citizen belies both their own agenda and their failure to practice reading comprehension. To borrow some words from Chief Justice Melville Fuller’s majority opinion, resort must be had elsewhere to come to a conclusive definition of “natural born citizen”.

You just shot your own argument in the foot. The only conclusive definition of CITIZENS relies on citizen parents. That class of citizens was exclusively characterized as natural-born. Any definition of citizen that doesn't include birth in the country to citizen parents had doubt, so such definitions are not conclusive. The Minor court didn't have to solve any doubts because Virginia Minor fit its defintion of NBC. Wong Kim Ark didn't try to solve those doubts about natural-born citizenship, but only as to whether Wong Kim Ark was a citizen of the United States.

Also, your reading comprehension isn't too good here. Virginia Minor argued she was a citizen via the 14th amendment, but the court rejected that argument: "in our opinion, it did not need this amendment to give them that position." Do you understand?? Women do not need the 14th amendment to become citizens when they are born in the country to citizen parents ... because they fit the characterization of natural-born citizen.

Further, the ELSEWHERE Waite refers to is a verbatim match of the Law of Nations in defining NBC. Compare the language:

Minor: all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens ... These were natives, or natural-born citizens

Law of Nations: The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens.

And one last thing: The Minor decision was written by C.J. Waite, not Fuller.

You keep basing your arguments on Minor. If that’s all you’ve got then you have nothing. There is nothing “conclusive” there.

You know what, you are beyond hope I think. Go back to your little world, and maybe some sense will spring out of a closet at you. Or, if you like I can quote at least 40 or 50 citations that prove you are wrong. I’ll check back on this thread tomorrow.