From the farther shores of political lawsuit-filing, from a farther-shores kinda guy: “On November 13, Alan Keyes and his vice-presidential running mate in California, Reverend Wiley Drake, and other members of the American Independent Party, filed a new lawsuit over Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president. … All the other cases have been dismissed because the plaintiffs were said to lack standing. This is the first case with a presidential candidate-plaintiff.” (“Alan Keyes Files Lawsuit Over Obama Eligibility”, Richard Winger Ballot Access News, Nov. 16; Keyes v. Bowen, PDF; Scott Moss, Concurring Opinions, Nov. 17).
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They commenced the suit in California state court, aren’t there going to be subject matter jurisdiction issues at the outset?
Why? They are suing to invalidate California’s election of electors pledged to Obama per California law.
Ok. I’ll bite. What happens if Keyes wins? What I can’t understand is how this could go on for as long as it has? All Obama has to do is to produce the paperwork. It should be a matter of public record anyway. Unless he isn’t a citizen.
Jim, why don’t you post your birth certificate to Overlawyered?
Unless you aren’t a citizen.
Anonymous: There is a legal set of requirements to hold the office of president: a natural born citizen, live in the US for the last 14 years and be over 35. All candidates are REQUIRED to be natural born-a birth certificate could resolve this issue.
Say you get pulled over by the police and don’t produce a driver’s license. You go to the station, call you lawyer. Your attorney asks you if you are in possession of a driver’s license. You say yes. Your attorney says, “Produce it so we can all go home.”
It would seem running for president of the US warrants a higher level of compliance with cooperation.
No problem. What format do you want that in? I’ll run it through the scanner tonight. What’s the big deal?
It should be a matter of public record anyway. Unless he isn’t a citizen.
It isn’t public record. Due to identity theft, the state of Hawaii passed a law prohibiting people other than the individual or immediate family from getting a copy of the birth certificate.
Obama has released a digital copy / scan of the certificate, but it raised more more concerns such as font type, lack of an official seal on the document, and a certificate number that may be inconsistant with the range of numbers used by Hawaii at the time.
“Obama has released a digital copy / scan of the certificate, but it raised more more concerns such as font type, lack of an official seal on the document, and a certificate number that may be inconsistant with the range of numbers used by Hawaii at the time.”
Lack of a seal, a font type that wasn’t in use at the time the certificate was issued and a certificate number that wasn’t in the correct range used at the time. Is it any wonder people are asking questions? Last time I checked something like that was called a forgery.
Hawaii law prevents the State from releasing a copy of Obama’s birth certificate, it doesn’t prevent Obama from releasing a copy.
For an issue that would be so easy to resolve, why has it gone on so long?
What would happen if Obama cannot affirmatively prove his US citizenship? Does Biden take his place? Does Hillary have any recourse? Just curious . . .
If Obama was born in Hawaii, he is a natural born citizen. If he was born elsewhere, he still would be a natural born citizen because his parents’ marriage was bigamous. Legally, he was born out of wedlock. Accessible on Google Books is “A Practical Companion to the Constitution” by Jethro Koller Lieberman. On pages 55-556 in the chapter “The Supreme Court’s 1997-1998 Term,” it says, “A federal law distinguishes between the citizenship of children born out of wedlock depending on whether their mother or father was a U.S. citizen. The rule is that a child born abroad to a mother who is a U.S. citizen and an alien father is an American citizen at birth….” Obama is a natural born citizen regardless of where he was born.