The constitution is not a dictionary. Only one provision has a specific definition, and that is treason. Somehow we have managed to impeach persons for high crimes and misdeameanors and promote interstate commerce without a constitutional definition either.
You are acting as though the framers did not have a common understanding of NBC. They did just as they knew what “well regulated” meant. The definition was taken from Vattel’s Law of Nations. That was THE treatise for understanding of terms of governance and diplomacy. That is the exact selfsame book that George Washington kept overdue from the NY Library for 250 years until it was discovered.
The only Congressional definition of NBC was that phony ass non-binding Senate Resolution 511 authored designed to give cover to McCain and by extension, Obama. Cruz nor Obama met THAT weak standard, (2 citizen parents) and they have NEVER defined NBC with regard to Article II, Section 1, clause 5. It is LONG overdue for resolution. So I say let’s adjudicate the matter in a competent court in an adversarial proceeding. Or do you fear the outcome?
“You are acting as though the framers did not have a common understanding of NBC.”
They did not.
If they did, it would have come from THE BIBLE which was the dominant influence on the Founders.
Under the Bible, citizenship is based on the parents, not the place of birth.
Israelites born in Egypt were Israelites, not Egyptians.
So if the founders had a common understanding, it was the BIBLICAL model that citizenship at birth follows the citizenship of the parents — not the place of birth.
Second, the English precedent was the same.
Nobody takes Vattel seriously, not even the French.
Third, ownership of a book does not mean that anyone followed it.
Thomas Jefferson owned several Korans because as President HE WAS AT WAR WITH ISLAM. He did not agree with it because he owned a copy of the Koran.
What you fail to understand is that the Founders read E V E R Y T H I N G.
They were highly educated, avid readers, had no TV’ or movies or video games, and read HUNDREDS of books.
So the idea that they had access to Vattel is an absurd assumption.
They did not take a private book by a private commentator seriously.
“The only Congressional definition of NBC was that phony ass non-binding Senate Resolution 511”
No, Congress has defined who is a natural born citizen since 1790.