[allmendream]

Vattel is pretty unambiguous about the children of soldiers born overseas being legally equivalent to being born in country.

For Vattel it didn't matter where the wife was from because according to HIS view of natural law - children would follow the condition of their father.

Nothing in the context you provided changes either.

If one follows Vattel then McCain is certainly eligible.

[philman_36]

For Vattel it didn't matter where the wife was from because according to HIS view of natural law - children would follow the condition of their father.
It obviously did matter as preceding sections to section 217 show.
Vattel plainly explains that "civil or political laws may, for particular reasons, ordain otherwise" and those laws, duly enacted, would determine what the case would be.