[John Valentine]

And if Zak is monitoring this thread, how about these two individuals, both my sons, and both quite clear in their understanding that while they might be citizens-by-birth, they are NOT NBCs.

1. Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, US Citizen father, non-US Citizen mother, 1977
2. Born in Boulder, Colorado, US Citizen father, non-US CItizen mother, 1979

But since both were granted citizenship at the moment of their births due to the circumstances of their births, they are NBCs - according to Zak.

My question to Zak is, therefore, by what mechanism, other than by statute, would US citizenship have devolved upon them?

[Sudetenland]

No law required beyond common law. The principle is called "jus sanguinis." Your sons are both citizens by blood. They are natural born citizens by dint of your citizenship. Citizenship can be conferred both by geography (jus soli) and/or by blood jus sanguinis

[cynwoody]

1. Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, US Citizen father, non-US Citizen mother, 1977
2. Born in Boulder, Colorado, US Citizen father, non-US CItizen mother, 1979

Son #1 is NBC because you are, and son #2 is, too, because of your citizenship and where he was born.

The supposed requirement that the parents both be citizens is a fiction the birthers invented after the 2008 election. In their frustration at having been utterly unable to prove Obama was born abroad, they (Leo Donofrio) cooked up the Vattel nonsense, in hopes the legal route would succeed where the factual didn't.

As Zak points out, Lincoln and the original GOP didn't buy it:

Let’s look at U.S. political history for more proof. Were there other instances of a presidential or vice presidential nominee with a foreign-born parent? You betcha!

The first presidential nominee of the Republican Party, in 1856, was John Charles Fremont. He was born in South Carolina to an American mother and a French father. Jean Charles Fremon was born a French citizen, near Lyon, France. He was not a U.S. citizen at the time of his son’s birth and never did become a citizen. Abraham Lincoln campaigned for Fremont. All the founders of the Republican Party campaigned for Fremont. One would be hard-pressed to find any suggestion at the time that Fremont’s birth made him ineligible for the presidency.

And there is no way the US Supreme Court is ever going to buy it, either. They will go with the common sense idea of what NBC is. During the 2008 election, Obama's parentage was not only known, but had been a celebrated aspect of his biography ever since his 2004 keynote address at the Donk convention. And, except for the loons claiming he was born in Mombasa to a woman supposedly too young to pass on citizenship, no one questioned his eligibility.

Not only that, but after a minor flub in the noon-time oath taking, the Chief Justice repeated the ceremony the following evening in the Map Room, just to make sure (LOL):

Chief Justice John Roberts, just making sure

Stare decisis et non quieta movere.

(For those of you in Rio Linda, Chief Justice Roberts is a conservative Republican appointed by GWB.)

[bjorn14]

You forgot to write the People’s Republic of Boulder so definitely not a NBC ;-)