Posted by
David Zublick on Saturday, December 06, 2008 7:00:56 PM
The controversy surrounding Barack
Obama's eligibility to assume the presidency of the United States is beginning to get some traction in the mainstream press.
After
languishing for the longest time as a story only being covered by the
alternative media, whispers of who this guy is and where he originally
came from are starting to be heard around water coolers across America.
The
Supreme Court was scheduled to meet in conference last Friday to
discuss whether to hear arguments in one of several cases involving
Obama's
eligibility on constitutional grounds. The question surrounds his place
of birth. The Constitution requires that anyone serving as president of
the United States be a natural born citizen. The case of Leo C.
Donofrio
v. New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells claims that Obama
does not meet the Constitution's Article 2, Section 1 "natural-born
citizen" requirement for president. Originally denied a hearing by
Justice David
Souter,
it gained new life when Justice Clarence Thomas agreed to bring it back
for review. Four of the Supreme Court's nine justices must agree to
approve a full hearing.
The interesting thing about
Donofrio's case, and what
distinguishes it from other cases regarding
Obama's birthplace, is that it makes no claim that Obama was born on foreign soil. Instead, it challenges
Obama's eligibility on the grounds that Obama was a British citizen at birth, because of citizenship in a British colony, Kenya.
On his blog,
Donofrio writes "Don't be distracted by the birth certificate and Indonesia issues. They are irrelevant to Senator
Obama's ineligibility to be president. Since Barack
Obama's father was a citizen of Kenya and therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of Senator
Obama's birth, then Senator Obama was a British citizen 'at birth.'"
Obama's camp has not denied that what
Donofrio is alleging is true. On the
Fight the Smears website,
they indicate that Obama was a dual citizen of the United States and
Britain, but that the British citizenship expired, leaving him with
only American citizenship.
Donofrio
alleges, however, that the Constitution was written in such a way to
exclude dual citizens like Obama. He writes "The Framers of the
Constitution, at the time of their birth were also British citizens,
and that's why the Framers declared that, while they were citizens of
the United States, they themselves were not 'natural born citizens.
Therefore, even if he were to produce an original birth certificate
proving he were born on U.S. soil, he still wouldn't be eligible to be
president."
There are other cases around the country that have
challenged Obama on constitutional grounds, all with regard to the
citizenship requirement.
Former presidential candidate Alan
Keyes
is among a group that has filed a petition in California asking the
secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College
votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies
his eligibility to hold the office.
A group of Washington
residents have filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court asking the
state's votes for President-elect Barack Obama be set aside. James E. Broe
of King County and 12 others claim Obama never established that he is a
natural-born American citizen as required by the Constitution, and that
Obama ran under a false name. There is also a Pennsylvania case brought
by Philip Berg.
The mystery in all of this is why Obama hasn't
simply resolved the issue by producing a valid birth certificate. He
could lay all of this to rest once and for all. Instead, he has chosen
to ignore these cases as mere distractions.
But the voices of
those demanding answers is now building to a crescendo, and as it does,
it becomes obvious that the cacophony will soon be deafening at the
steps of high court.
How will they respond?
There
are those who say that even if Obama is not a natural-born citizen as
required by law, the justices, fearing an uprising unlike anything this
country has ever witnessed, will elect not to get involved. This would
pose a constitutional crisis.
And our nation may not survive that.
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