“If the clause is so clearly meaningless as you demonstrate, (fence jumper children qualify)”
Fence jumpers qualifying would not make the clause meaningless. It’s effect would no longer be what you and perhaps the framers would like it to be, but it would still have a meaning. And that meaning is “born citizen”.
Finally, we have it, the SC(not what I and the framers intended) has amended the Constitution without the benefit of an amendment. Perhaps, the birthers will expose that if nothing else. The Constitution is now and has been relegated to the whim of 9 political appointees who can ignore sections at will and make the document say whatever is convenient for them. We have no rule of law. I think that has been my argument for years. We have a living and breathing document. Three of kind beats two pair some days and some days not. It is Alice in Wonderland.