The founders must have put in Article 1 Section 8 clause 4 for some reason. If they didn’t mean anything about “rules of naturalization”, why did they put the words in there?
BTW, in the very first acts of Congress, you know, the Congress that actually had the founding father in that congress, passed the very first “Naturalization Act” of 1790. That is in keeping with Article 1 Section 8 Clause 4 and was signed into law by none other than George Washington. And in that very first act, they clearly stated who would be considered natural born citizens. And guess what, they didn’t have to be born on US Soil.
Here is the section of that law that sets the precedence:
The Act also establishes the United States citizenship of certain children of citizens, born abroad, without the need for naturalization: “the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens: provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States”.
Now before we go any further, note several things with this law:
1) THE FOUNDING FATHERS specifically called those born outside the boundaries of the US to qualified parents, as natural born citizens. So any definition of NBC which requires birth on US soil is AUTOMATICALLY outside the founders intent.
2) THE FOUNDING FATHERS didn’t even specify that the father had to be a US citizen, only that they had to reside in the US. So any definition of NBC which requires the father to be a US citizen also is AUTOMATICALLY outside the founders intent.
3) THE FOUNDING FATHERS specifically gave Congress the exclusive and enumerated power to deal with ALL rules of naturalization. Further the very first congress exercised that authority to define who qualifies as NBC. Therefore, any argument that says the Congress can’t alter the definition of NBC is AUTOMATICALLY outside the founders intent.
4) I also hear that the Naturalization Act of 1790 was repealed and replaced as an argument against using that act to understand the intent of the founding fathers. Those that attempt to use that argument miss the point - CONGRESS HAS AUTHORITY OVER ALL RULES OF NATURALIZATION. And that the founding fathers used that authority to change the definition on NBC. The authority is clearly there. And if you follow the line of naturalization acts from the first to now you get to Title 8 Section 1401 - Nationals and Citizens of the United States at birth.
5) Lastly, others argue about definitions attempting to cite Vattel or others as the source for their logical fallacy of appeal to authority. The problem is that it is an attempt to guess what the founding fathers thought. The first acts of Congress show what the founding fathers DID. And what they did was to define NBC status so that parentage was more important than location.