Replies

Remember that the Constitution does not say who shall be a citizen. It only mentions 2 of many conceivable types.....those citizens that are naturalized (an inclusive term), and, as a limiting restriction on who can be President, only those whose parentage and birthplace is totally American. (A pedigree requirement). The Constitution does NOT say that everyone except Naturalized Citizens are eligible, its says only those with a pedigree ARE eligible.

As to your question....

Yes...... a simple “born citizen.” The fourteenth Amendment recognized the existence of other types of born citizens and defined their circumstance. As the USSC said of this citizen in Wong Arc.......(p) the rights of (Won Arc) are no different than a NBC..... thereby saying that a born citizen and a NBC ARE different, but not in their rights as citizens.

Notice that the Court didn’t say the Wong WAS a NBC.....the Court was being careful in it’s decision not to create a sort of 2nd class citizen...... also remember that running for President is NOT a right and the Constitution lays out restrictive eligibility requirements for it in Article II. The Constitution does not say Anyone except a naturalized citizen can be President as would be the case if there were only 2 types of citizens.

Note that the term NBC was not coined by the Founders. This term goes back to the Roman Republic, and was still in use in jurist writings in the 18th century. The Framers felt no need to define a term well known in legal circles at the Founding.

Also note that the term NBC only occurs once in the Constitution and that is in the limiting requirements for who can be President. The term was NOT used in the requirements for any other elected official....re: Senator or House Rep. etc.

Thank you, Forty-Niner. Great analysis, again.

You correctly went to the heart of my question, demonstrating that a “Born Citizen” is not necessarily a “Natural Born Citizen” eligible to be President.

Honestly, I hope you are wrong, as Cruz needs to be qualified to be POTUS in order to be Veep (and later, POTUS, after Trump administration).

Wong Kim Ark is a 14th amendment citizenship issue, whereas Cruz is a statutory citizenship issue. Wong Kim Ark was born in the US, so fits into the 14th amendment, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof," with the argument in that case being over the meaning of "subject to the jurisdiction thereof."

Cruz was not born in the US. His citizenship depends on a statute. The question there is whether citizenship that depends on a statute is "naturalization" or not.

The prevailing sentiment is that statutory citizenship that is conditioned only on the circumstance of birth is not naturalization. I disagree with that, and so do SCOTUS cases.

I suspect the courts will view the definition of NBC as a political issue. It means whatever the people accept it to mean with any particular candidate.