According to the SCOTUS, when determining what the Constitution means, you must give every word purpose, in your understanding of the term natural born Citizen, what purpose do you assign the word ‘natural’? The writers could have simply said “born Citizen”, or “Citizen from birth”. Why the extra word ‘natural’?
According to the SCOTUS, when determining what the Constitution means, you must give every word purpose, in your understanding of the term natural born Citizen, what purpose do you assign the word "natural?" The writers could have simply said "born Citizen," or "Citizen from birth." Why the extra word "natural?"You are not likely to get an honest or a logical answer to this key question.
The usual weaselly answer (if any answer is given at all) is to claim that the phrase "natural born" is somehow equivalent to a single word because it is a very special phrase taken from English law. This is bogus on its face because 1) it actually is, in fact, two separate words, and 2) the founders considered using the simpler, single word "born," but rejected it after much deliberation (about the importance of exclusive allegiance) in favor of the phrase "natural born," so an honest person cannot claim that the two mean the same thing.
To me it is clear that the founders considered that requiring that our presidents just be born citizens would not be enough of a check on foreign intrigue. They wanted the office restricted to Americans who were exclusively 100 percent red blooded Americans. The lengthier phrase was to ensure a natural exclusive allegiance to America with no possibility of anything else.