re: #104 KGxvi

They could have tracked the language of the 13th Amendment and said something along the lines of “all persons previously held in slavery or involuntary servitude within the jurisdiction of the United States shall, upon ratification of this amendment be natural born citizens of the United States.”

Instead, they chose to ratify the common law understanding of natural born citizen. (And I can hear so many judges and law professors shout in unison: there is no federal common law. To which I say, “bullshit, y’all know there is.”)

To which I already noted (as a non-lawyer) there is no such understanding, citing the example of common-law marriage above.

re: #20 Anymouse 🌹

Common law understandings have no force in US law, unless they are written into law.

That is why many states do not recognise common law marriages unless defined into law by other states.