>>Article 3 Section 2 http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A3Sec2.html
>>The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority...
>>
>>The Constitution is not to be interpreted, it is to be used to interpret cases, legislation, treaties etc. We need the judicial branch to ensure that the Legislative and Executive branches do not violate the Constitution. If the Constitution is open to interpretation, then there is no established rigorous "check" on the other branches, merely the whims of the present justices. The Constitution is meant to stand as THE law establishing and thereby restraining the power of the 3 branches.
>
>The problem is that the Constitution sometimes needs interpretation. Let's take one clause that's been in the news over the last few years:
>
>From Article 2, Section 1:
>
>No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
>
>Questions I can see quickly from that sentence:
>
>1) What is the meaning of "natural born"? Specifically, does it mean "born a citizen" or "born within the borders of the US"? (If I wanted to be argumentative, I could even point out that one interpretation would even eliminate those born by C-Section or those for whom labor was induced. But I think we can all agree that the founders weren't really interested in the manner of birth.)
>
>2) Does "been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States" mean that you have to have been living within the US borders for all of the last 14 years? Does that mean service people who've been stationed outside the US are eliminated? What about people who lived overseas for work?
>
>That's too meaty questions from one sentence. How can you say the document doesn't need to be interpreted?
>
>Tamar

I have a few minutes so I'll bite.

The phrase "natural born citizen" as understood in the verbage of the time, derived from the English common law that the framers used as a basis. It refers to children born in a country to parents who are its citizens. This phrasing was used to define citizens seperately from foreigners as a primary concern at the time was having a person with foreign loyalty placed in charge of the new Republic and its military. There was no debate regarding the phrasing which was adopted by the drafting Committee of Eleven suggesting that it's meaning was understood well enough to not require explicit definition nor controversial enough to rise to require debate.

As far as to Resident, the requirement means that one must have lived in the US Republic for a minimum of 14 years.

In regards to both questions it's vital to remember that the Constitutuion is a framework. The enumerated powers, restrictions and amendments are meant to guide future lawmakers, who would subsequently write the legislation, codes etc which would fill in the individual laws. The Constitution provded Congress the power to establish the Rule of Naturalization which they did first in 1790 and have subsequently modified numerous time since.

The 14th Amendment later defined citizenship as All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am14.html

In addition it empowered Congress to further clarify through legislation which they subsequently did and can be located in Title 8 Section 1401 of the US Code.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode08/usc_sec_08_00001401----000-.html

The C-Section point is not reasonable and serves to make my point. Language changes through time and those changes must not be considered when examining the framework. The nomenclature of the time must be used otherwise the whims of the present seep into and undermine the law.

Please note that I do not want to make this a regular thing. While I am quite capable of going over the entirety of the Constitution and providing a reasonable accounting of what led to the particularities of the chosen words, that's a considerable amount of work and frankly anyone interested should do it for themselves to really grasp the knowledge.