2009-Jan-02 15:13 UTC
Unnatural Born Citizen
The Constitution for the United States of America sets forth
certain requirements for persons seeking to become President
of the United States (POTUS).
Article II Section 1 Paragraph 5 of the Constitution reads as
follows:
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.
In other words, to become POTUS, one must be
natural born
citizen, be at last 35 years of age and have lived in the
United States for 14 years.
Therefore, the Constitution recognizes two types of citizens:
Those who are
natural born and those who are not. A
natural born citizen is one whose allegiance to the United
States is not in doubt. Meaning, he or she is loyal to no other
country but the United States and no other country claims
jurisdiction over this person. Therefore, a person born within
United States to parents who are citizens of the United States
is a
natural born citizen. By contrast, someone born
in a different country, who immigrates to the US and becomes a
naturalized citizen is not.
This leaves a bit of a gray area in between. As such, it is
the duty of the courts to interpret and judge the cases which
fall in this gray area.
At the time of this writing, a Google search for
"natural born citizen" or
"certificate of birth"
brings up hundreds if not thousands hits related to President-Elect
Obama. There are controversies about Senator Obama's eligibility
to assume the office of President of the United States (POTUS).
So what is all this hoopla all about? Senator Obama certainly is
over 35 years old. He also seems to meet the requirement of having
lived in the US for 14 years. The only part that is in question is
his citizenship.
There are many allegations abound, from he being born in Kenya,
to being an Indonesian citizen, to the Certification of Live Birth
released by Obama's campaign being a forgery, to not even being a
citizen of United States.
Let's examine each of these points.
Kenya
What we know to be true is that Obama's paternal grandmother has
been on record saying she was present at the hospital in Kenya
at the time of his birth. Also, His Excellency (H.E.) Peter Ogego
(Kenyan Ambassador) was
recorded
on the Detroit radio show WRIF FM, saying that a memorial plaque
of sort is in the works to be place at the hospital where
President-Elect Obama was born at in celebration of his victory.
Kenya has also declared a public holiday celebrating Obama's win
(also confirmed by H.E. Ogego and another Kenyan citizen).
We also know that, now, the Kenyan government has placed a
gag order
on Obama's Kenyan family, so they no longer can speak to the
press. We also know that H.E. Peter Ogego is since changed
his position on what he so proudly claimed on WRIF FM radio.
Birth Certificate
Obama's campaign has
released a document
that is identified as
Certification of Live Birth.
By this document they claim that Obama is in fact born in
Hawaii and therefore is a natural born citizen.
Let's examine this document a bit. First notice that at the
bottom of this document there is a notice that reads "ANY
ALTERATIONS INVALIDATE THIS CERTIFICATE". Next, look at
the "CERTIFICATE NO." on that document. Notice that
it has been blacked out, in effect invalidating this document.
This document is a
Certification of Live Birth which
is not the same thing as a
Certificate of Live Birth
(or a Birth Certificate). So, what is the difference? Searching
the net
reveals
that a
Certification of Live Birth is also known as
a "computer copy" and only includes some, but not
all, of the information contained in a
Certificate of
Live Birth. Furthermore, according to
Hawaii's own state
pages
a
Certification of Live Birth isn't quite the same
as a
Certificate of Live Birth and does not carry
same legal weight:
In order to process your application, DHHL utilizes
information that is found only on the original Certificate
of Live Birth, which is either black or green. This is a
more complete record of your birth than the Certification
of Live Birth (a computer-generated printout). Submitting
the original Certificate of Live Birth will save you time
and money since the computer-generated Certification
requires additional verification by DHHL.
Another interesting point on the document released by Obama's
web-site is the reported race for both Obama's mother and father;
"CAUCASIAN" and "AFRICAN" respectively. At
the time when Obama's birth certificate would've been drawn up,
in 1961, the mother's race would have been reported as
"WHITE" and the father's as "NEGRO".
Note also that the State of
Hawaii issued certificates of birth (§338-17.8)
for children born outside the US. The provision allows for "an
adult or the legal parents of a minor child" to apply for a
birth certificate for the minor from the director of health
providing that "the legal parents of such individual ... had
declared the Territory or State of Hawaii as their legal residence
for at least one year immediately preceding the birth or adoption
of such child". Obama's maternal grandparents were resident
of Hawaii, who could have applied for this certificate.
Only point that is of real importance here is that a
Certification
of Live Birth isn't sufficient documentation for legal purposes.
Obama needs to release his
Certificate of Live Birth.
University Records
Another thing that is suspicious is that Obama is not releasing
his University records. There is speculation that Obama possibly
attended school as an Indonesian foreign student and therefore
he does not wish to make these records public. What's significant
about this, if true, is that Obama as an adult would have had to
accepted an Indonesian Citizenship to be admitted as a foreign
student. Thus, relinquishing his US citizenship, therefore, no
longer considered a natural born citizen -- assuming he ever was
a natural born citizen.
British Subject
But maybe none of the above even matters because Obama's own
web-site admits
that Obama's Citizenship was governed by Britain. At the very
bottom of the page you will see these words:
"When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4, 1961 in
Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the
United Kingdom's dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native,
Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship
status was governed by The British Nationality Act of
1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.'s
children."
The quote continues to claim that that citizenship would have
automatically expired on Aug. 4, 1982. But that would only
make Obama a US citizen. Because Obama Jr. was a subject of
another country
at birth -- regardless of where he
was born -- he could not be a natural born citizen.
During the time period from Dec. 24, 1952 to Nov. 13. 1986
United States' Immigration and Naturalization
law stated:
If only one parent was a U.S. citizen at the time
of your birth, that parent must have resided in the
United States for at least ten years, at least five
of which had to be after the age of 16.
Obama's mother,
Ann Dunham Soetoro,
was born on Nov 29, 1942. At the time of Obama's birth,
May 1961, she would've only been 18 years old. Therefore,
it would be impossible for her to satisfy the provision of
having lived in the United States five years after her 16th
birthday. So, Obama may not even be a US citizen at all.
Where does this leave us? The Constitution is clear about who
is eligible to become POTUS: A natural born citizen who is at
least 35 years old and have lived 14 years in the US. Since
only Obama's mother was a US citizen at the time of his birth,
this at best leaves his citizenship status in the gray area.
This is where the courts need to come in and give their decision.
There are numerous legal cases that have been asking the Supreme
Court of the US to comment on Obama's eligibility for POTUS, but
they have refused to do so thus far; from Philip J. Berg to
Leo C. Donofrio
to
Dr. Orly Taitz and
others.
Illinois Senate Race
In 2004 Alan Lee Keyes ran against Senator Obama for his Senate
seat. There are reports that during a debate Keyes had brought
up the issue of Obama's citizenship and Obama had responded with
"I'm running for Senate not President." A video of this
allegedly was available on YouTube(tm), however, it has since
been deleted from the site. If someone has this clip, it would be
a very interesting confession by the Senator himself that he is
not qualified to hold office of POTUS.
The $20,000 Question
The real question I have is, given all these doubts about Senator
Obama's citizenship status, why in the hell did the Clintons miss
it during the primaries?
There is enough controversy right now about this that is getting
people to question and doubt Obama and even get people pissed
off at those who are questioning his eligibility. The Clintons
could have very easily used this ammunition very effectively to
knock Obama out of the primaries early on. Why didn't they!?
... sidster
Last modified: 2009-Jan-02 21:12 UTC