[dardner]

JohnD,

So far as I understand the only place where any kind of definition for natural-born shows up in US law is the Naturalization Act of 1790 but is then repealed by another act in 1795 where the relevant text is unchanged except for the omission of natural born.

The paragraph you cited is a bit strange to me, does this mean an unlimited number of generations can be born abroad, never step foot on US soil, and some distant progeny is still natural-born?

Some arguments I have encountered claim that the 1790 act demonstrates original intent but I have a hard time understanding how a natural-born citizen would need to be naturalized. It is also hard to understand how foreign-born and natural-born could be the same things. It seems to me that a commerce or naturalization statute can treat someone as a natural-born or alien for the purpose of the statute but I don’t see how they can define things beyond their scope. Can you create an act where redefined words can change the meaning of the Constitution?

I don’t know if Blackstone settles the issue but Cruz was born in a country where He is a citizen by birth. If that also means He can be a natural-born citizen of the US at the same time we should probably have a Constitutional Amendment to properly define natural-born. Unfortunately, they would probably just drop natural-born and make citizen the requirement.