United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898)"It thus clearly appears that, by the law of England for the last three centuries, beginning before the settlement of this country and continuing to the present day, aliens, while residing in the dominions possessed by the Crown of England, were within the allegiance, the obedience, the faith or loyalty, the protection, the power, the jurisdiction of the English Sovereign, and therefore every child born in England of alien parents was a natural-born subject unless the child of an ambassador or other diplomatic agent of a foreign State or of an alien enemy in hostile occupation of the place where the child was born."
"III. The same rule was in force in all the English Colonies upon this continent down to the time of the Declaration of Independence, and in the United States afterwards, and continued to prevail under the Constitution as originally established."
This ruling, which is a ruling from the United States Supreme Court, says that the common law in England was that every child born in England of ALIEN parents was a "natural-born subject".
It explains that since the Constitution did not redefine the term, and that the US did inherit english common law in large part, that US common law holds the same. Further, that the definition "continued to prevail under the Constitution as originally established."
It therefore defines "natural born citizen" as including anyone born in the country, even if they had alien parents.
The key word here is “jurisdiction”. For example, Kenya, was part of the British Commonwealth and under English law. Aliens were citizens of theat country who were not British citizens by birth, but were conferred citizenship by virtue of being under British jurisdiction.
We’re not talking illegal aliens here, we’re talking masses of people who were not born as British Citizens but came under British jurisdiction, and were therby conferred citizenship.
BHO senior is a good example, and he conferred British Citizenship to BHO Jr. But BHO Jr. would not be a natural born citizen of Kenya, just as he isn’t of the United States, because BHO Sr’s citizenship was not under the jurisdiction of the United States. Had BHO naturalized, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
I’ve read many opinions on this, and there are certain excerpts that can certainly cause confusion, but when you read the opinion in totality, we revert to English common law when it comes to the deginition of “Natural Born Citizen”, and it is clear-cut.