Saturday, December 6, 2008

Obama's birth certificate

This article and the comments below it discuss Obama's citizenship. It is extraordinary the lengths to which some of these people are willing to go to in justifying their argument that Obama is not a natural US citizen.

The Supreme Court is considering a case on this. However, a quick clarifications. Contrary to the assertions of the bloggers and the commenters, Obama's birth certificate is not the issue in the case before the Supreme Court. The facts of Obama's birth have already been settled. He was born in Hawaii. Here's politifact.org's comment on the subject.

The case the Supreme Court is considering alleges that because Obama's father was a Kenyan and Kenya was still at the time a British colony, that the laws at the time would have made him a dual citizen of both the US and UK/Kenya and therefore he is not a natural born American citizen. If the Supreme Court decides that this view is correct, children of immigrants (even if only one parent is an immigrant) would be ineligible to be the US President. It seems unlikely though that the Supreme Court would decide to overturn the election.

UPDATE: The Supreme Court has thrown out the case. One appeal is still pending - the case filed by Berg alleging Obama wasn't born in Hawaii. The Federal court in Philadelphia had earlier rules that Berg had no locus standii to challenge Obama's citizenship. It's more than likely that Berg will lose the appeal.

No comments: