Supreme Court today deliberates suit blocking Obama presidency

(UPDATE: The Supreme Court had issued no statement on its discussions by the close of business Friday.)

It may come as something of a shock to those millions planning trips to Washington for the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama that he isn't really legally capable of taking the oath.

It's the birth certificate thing. And we have a tendentious video below to show the kind of claims being made that he is not a "native-born" American.

That's because he was born in Kenya to an alien father and isn't a natural-born American as the Constitution requires and the copy of his Hawaii birth certificate looks fake to many and the state won't release the original, which makes everything that much more suspicious.

This controversy has been brewing for many months online with few taking it seriously. The Ticket wrote about it last June and again in August.

We published a birth certificate provided by the Obama presidential campaign, which has caused hundreds of commenters to argue back and forth over its authenticity, especially in recent weeks.

And we'll publish it again right here.

Crackpot controversy, you say. He's been accepted as a U.S. citizen.

But here's the thing: The United States Supreme Court officially takes up the issue of whether to ponder whether Obama can become president in formal discussions today in Washington.

What? Yup! A similar case was thrown out earlier this fall, but Justice Clarence Thomas distributed the legal papers in Donofrio vs. Wells to his court colleagues for legal conference today.

Hardly anyone thinks the case has a serious chance of ...

... succeeding, given the court's distaste for hanging chads and public disfavor for its involvement in settling the Al Gore-George W. Bush presidential contest over Florida in 2000.

Similar conspiracy efforts were mounted over John McCain having been born in a U.S. naval hospital in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father was stationed. They too might well have proceeded had the Arizonan won on Nov. 4.

But just think what would happen if the court did consider blocking Obama's inauguration, with the world already having congratulated him and Obama's Cabinet half-formed, not to mention him already having resigned from the Senate. Oops.

You'll note that Sens. Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton have not yet taken that irreversible step. Just saying.

Our blogging colleague Frank James over at the Swamp has pulled together considerable material on the controversy:

The suit originally sought to stay the election, and was filed on behalf of Leo Donofrio against New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells.

Legal records show it is only the tip of an iceberg of nationwide efforts seeking to derail Obama's election over accusations that he either wasn't born a U.S. citizen or that he later renounced his citizenship in Indonesia.

In one of those delicious ironies that makes life so interesting, the justice who distributed the case to his colleagues was none other than Thomas, only the second African American to sit on the high court. One presumes the justices saw some legal issue to mull.

A recent Tribune story wrote: "The most famous case questioning Obama's citizenship was filed in Pennsylvania in August on behalf of Philip J. Berg and sought to enjoin the Democratic National Committee from nominating Obama.

"The U.S. Supreme Court declined to accept the case. Earlier, a federal judge rejected it for "lack of standing" -- ruling that Berg had no legal right to sue. In cases like this, judges sometimes believe the matter is best left to political institutions, such as the Electoral College or Congress, according to legal scholar Eugene Volokh of the University of California at Los Angeles."

The remaining case with the highest profile is Donofrio vs. Wells. Because it was distributed by Justice Thomas to other justices, it gained undue importance for people unschooled in how the court works, Volokh said.

But it was. Now come the court's discussions. And presumably some decision on deciding.

James has more on this much-ignored story over here.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Family via Associated Press

Comments

[T. SCHULTZ]

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AT THE COURT HEARING ON OBAMA'S CITIZENSHIP VERIFICATION??? I BELIEVE THE HEARING WAS TO TAKE PLACE ON 01.26.10. IT SHOULD BE A SIMPLE, SHORT HEARING. JUST PRODUCE PROPER DOCUMENTATION IN REGARDS TO A BIRTH CERTIFICATE PROVING WHERE OBAMA WAS BORN. HIS SIDE STEPPING THE MATTER BY NOT PRODUCING THE PROVE/CERTIFICATE ONLY MAKES IT WORSE FOR HIM. COME ON OBAMA PUT UP OR GET OUT. I MUST SAY THAT EVERY PRESIDENT THAT HAS BEEN ELECTED DURING MY VOTING LIFE TIME I HAVE STOOD BEHIND REGARDLESS IF I VOTED FOR HIM OR NOT. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I REALLY THINK THAT WE ARE IN ALOT OF TROUBLE. THIS MAN HAS CUT THIS COUNTRY DOWN, BELITTLED ITS CITIZENS ABROAD AND IS RUNNING THIS COUNTRY INTO THE GROUND. I PERSONALLY HOPE HE GETSIMPEACHED, THROWN OUT OF OFFICE AND PROVED TO BE THE IMPOSTER HE SEEMS TO BE. THIS COUNTRY JWOULD BE MUCH BETTER OFF WITHOUT HIM AND HIS CREW. COME ON PEOPLE, GET INVOLVED WITH THE LOCAL AND NATIONAL "TEA PARTIES" AND GET RID OF THE INCUMBANTS (I MEAN ALL OF THEM) AND LETS START OVER BY REBUILDING THIS COUNTRY FOR THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE.. GOD BLESS ALL...

[borderraven]

Kenya Aviation
Obama's parents married on February 2, 1961, and by estimation of gestation (based on the published date of birth) she was 3-months pregnant with Jr. These two were college students and newlyweds. His kin and her in-laws were in Kenya. There were three airports in the British Kenya Colony and Protectorate, as early as 1938, at (East to West) Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu. His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Luo from Nyang'oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya. The Kisumu airport is about 6-miles from where Obama's family lives. If the parents went to Kenya on school holidays, and boarded a flight home in Kisumu-Nairobi-Mombasa. Pregnancy complication could have forced a stay in Mombasa, with delivery in Coast Province General Hospital, Mombasa, British Kenya Colony and Protectorate. Classes started in September.

[borderraven]

Aliens within the US, are under "consular jurisdiction" of their nation.
Foreign consulates are authorized in the US under treaty.
The requirement that for consular registration within one year of birth applied only if the father was a Citizen of the UK and Colonies (CUKC) by descent only and the child was also to become a CUKC by descent rather than birth in the UK or colonies. As Barack Obama Sr, was born in the colony of Kenya, he was a CUKC by birth rather than descent. Thus, Barack Obama II was capable of becoming a CUKC by descent without the need for consular registration.

British Nationality Act, 1948
(11 & 12 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 56.
Part II Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies.
Citizenship by birth or descent.
5. Citizenship by descent.
"5.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a person born after the commencement of this Act shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent if his father is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time of the birth:
Provided that if the father of such a person is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent only, that person shall not be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by virtue of this section unless—
(a) that person is born or his father was born in a protectorate, protected state, mandated territory or trust territory or any place in a foreign country where by treaty, capitulation, grant, usage, sufferance, or other lawful means, His Majesty then has or had jurisdiction over British subjects; or"

[borderraven]

FactCheck.org, says" FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate."
We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. "

Then where are the photos of the "original birth certificate"?

Why did FactCheck.org only post a "prima facie copy"?

Can you accept the truth that FactCheck.org has committed wire fraud by implying they posted the original, while posting a "prima facie copy"?