What they fail to understand & why the lawyers have all failed is because a Republic is a type of government whose foundation must be based on international law in order for the states to maintain their individual sovereignty. The federal govt was formed to promote ease of movement between these individual sovereign states and thus international laws common to all were needed. Thus the reason the founders left to the states the right to determine their born citizenry, but to keep rif-raf from entering the country to plunder the citizenry, as well as put in place that which would eventually bring about an end to the slave trade, they set forth the guidelines for immigration.
I oft think of the quotes from the founders where in they say, if you do not like the laws of the state you are in or if that state does not fit your economic needs, you have the right to move to a state that is more suitable for your needs & happiness. Well, where can we really go now? I see no difference as every state is now subject to the federal govt rather than it being the other way around. And thus through the dumbing down of citizenship by “fiat” law or by just plain ignoring the law, we truly are a nation without borders and the states are merely states in name only as Justice Field in the WKA warned us would happen because of the usurped phrase in the 14th that some purport to mean that the federal govt has authority over the states in ALL citizenship matters and that all citizens are US citizens 1st & state 2nd.
“are citizens of the United States & of the state wherein they reside”
The fact is, the founders simply never ventured into the area of birth as it was common law of all nations(international law) set forth by God, that children follow the nationality of the father.
And this is where we'll never agree. Firstly, because many phrases in the Constitution were taken from Common Law, and "natural born" was one of them.
And second, because many people have different ideas of what laws are set forth by God, and what God wants of us. My ancestors were slaughtered because some people thought "God wanted it." Hugenots were slaughtered by the Catholic population, some egged on by priests who thought "God wanted it." Protestants persecuted and killed Catholics in Ireland in the 1600's, some because "God wanted it."
Forgive me if I don't trust your interpretation of what God wants, or what are God's laws. [My religion dictates that the mother's religion controls, not the father's.] In this particular case, I'll trust rather to the Founders, the Constitution, and over a century of interpretation by the courts.