This therefore requires us to believe that Congress can redefine the meaning of words in the US Constitution, which is absurd.
That is only true if you assume that the term “natural-born” already have a common-law meaning at the time the constitution was written, AND that the term excluded people born to parents from the country but who were out of the country at the time of birth.
The point of the argument made here is that if you look at the term as used in those days, it would have already granted citizenship.
That congress passed a law to make it clear what this meant is not germane, unless you believe that without any law, there would be a clear answer to the question.
Note that McCain was judged to be a natural-born citizen even though he was born before the latest law was passed.
It would be nice in some cases if the founding fathers had included a glossary of terms, and had spent a little more time defining what they were talking about. Of course, they couldn’t have anticipated our modern ability to twist every word that exists. But I believe if they spent a year here today, and went back, they could have written a constitution that had much better protection against the tyranny that has befallen us.
I’m convinced the commerce clause would be a section all on its own, because that is the most certain area where what we do today isn’t anything like what they thought.
Absurd if you don't know history. The first Congress and Pres. Washington made children born over seas to citizen parents "natural born citizens" and used that term in the law. That's really all we need to know: Congress can define the term by law just as it defines who is and who is not a citizen by birth. As far as inherited citizenship, they're one-and-the-same.
“This therefore requires us to believe that Congress can redefine the meaning of words in the US Constitution, which is absurd.”
Not really. If there is doubt about the meaning of a word, or three, then it is entirely reasonable for Congress to explain it. I prefer that, on the whole, to the courts giving their interpretation.