Sorry, I should have been more clear for you (my fault) - The ruling in 1898 (WKA) that seems to be the holy grail for you was not to determine a person’s eligibility to serve as president (as are the cases related to 0 or against others for not determining his natural-born citizenship before putting him on the ballot - in which case SCOTUS will have to explain the definition of natural born citizen).
WKA was about whether or not Wong was an American citizen because he was born in the US. The court found that he was as much a citizen as a natural born citizen, but not that he was natural born citizen.
“The ruling went into great detail on the meaning of NBC.”
Since the ruling was related to whether Wong was a citizen not whether he was eligible to President, you’re throwing dicta at me because....
“The court found that he was as much a citizen as a natural born citizen, but not that he was natural born citizen. / Since the ruling was related to whether Wong was a citizen not whether he was eligible to President, you’re throwing dicta at me because....”
Because it was not dicta. The government argued in the case that WKA was not a NBC, and so the court answered that argument with a detailed discussion of the meaning of NBC. It was brought up, argued on both sides, and the court made it a part of their decision.
Dicta is not “anything in a decision other than the final judgment statement”. Dicta is anything made in passing, not critical to the logical line of thought supporting the actual decision. That is why LexisNexis lists 39 holdings in WKA...and unusually high number, but I saw a summary of cases a few months back that described the WKA ruling as “Gray reviews the history of the world”.
Dicta is what Minor gave in discussing NBC - something not argued, and irrelevant to the final decision. Dicta - “in passing”.
Even an admission that a court could ever be wrong about anything is a serious blow to their arguments. Or mighten they argue that Plessy was correctly decided? Somehow I doubt they would do that.
Oh well. You live by the "infallible court" you die by the "infallible court."