The U.S. Supreme Court has turned aside a request to stop the Electoral College from selecting the 44th president, in a vote scheduled for Monday, until Barack Obama documents his eligibility for the office under the Constitution’s requirement that presidents must be “natural born” citizens.
The action came in a case brought to the high court by Philip J. Berg, who alleges Obama is ineligible to be president.
Berg had asked the court for an injunction the stay the Electoral College votes and prohibit Vice President Dick Cheney, the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate from counting any votes until that demanded proof arrives.
The injunction was sought while Berg awaits the court’s determination on whether it will hear his writ of certiorari requesting review of a dismissal of his case in U.S. District Court in eastern Pennsylvania.
“I know that Mr. Obama is not a constitutionally qualified natural born citizen and is ineligible to assume the office of president of the United States,” Berg said in a statement on his ObamaCrimes.com website.
“Obama knows he is not ‘natural born’ as he knows where he was born and he knows he was adopted in Indonesia; Obama is an attorney, Harvard Law grad who taught Constitutional law; Obama knows his candidacy is the largest ‘hoax’ attempted on the citizens of the United States in over 200 years; Obama places our Constitution in a ‘crisis’ situation; and Obama is in a situation where he can be blackmailed by leaders around the world who know Obama is not qualified,” Berg’s statement continued.
However, the high court, in a terse website entry, confirmed the application for the injunction was “denied by Justice [David] Souter.”
The controversy, however, remains far from over. The latest ruling was sandwiched between Monday’s decision not to review arguments against Obama’s candidacy in the Donofrio v. Wells case from New Jersey and a conference that is scheduled by the justices this Friday on another case raising virtually the same concerns.
The case brought by Leo Donofrio alleged Obama does not meet the Constitution’s Article 2, Section 1 “natural-born citizen” requirement for president because of his dual citizenship at birth, as does the new case, Cort Wrotnowski v. Susan Bysiewicz, Connecticut secretary of state.
The Wrotnowski case had been rejected by Justice Ruth Ginsburg Nov. 26, but then was resubmitted to Justice Antonin Scalia. There was no word of its fate for about 10 days, then the court’s website confirmed it has been distributed for this Friday’s conference, a meeting at which the justices consider whether to take cases.
More than a dozen cases have been brought into various courtrooms over Obama’s eligibility, many of which have been dismissed summarily. However, others still remain in the pipeline that could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last month WND reported on the worries over a “constitutional crisis” that could be looming over the issue of Obama’s citizenship. The concerns were raised in a lawsuit in California, with lead plaintiff former presidential candidate Alan Keyes, asking state officials to prevent Electoral College members from voting for Obama until they investigated his eligibility, a case being handled by the United States Justice Foundation.
WND senior reporter Jerome Corsi had gone to both Kenya and Hawaii prior to the election to investigate issues surrounding Obama’s birth. But his research and discoveries only raised more questions.
The biggest question was why, if a Hawaii birth certificate exists as his campaign has stated, Obama hasn’t simply ordered it made available to settle the rumors.
The governor’s office in Hawaii said there is a valid certificate but rejected requests for access and left ambiguous its origin: Does the certificate on file with the Department of Health indicate a Hawaii birth or was it generated after the Obama family registered a Kenyan birth in Hawaii?
Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro, has named two different Hawaii hospitals where Obama could have been born. There have been other allegations that Obama actually was born in Kenya during a time when his father was a British subject. A one point a Kenyan ambassador said Obama’s birthplace in Kenya already was being recognized.
The California case for which Keyes is a plaintiff states: “Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the office of president of the United States of America and, thereby, his election declared void, petitioners, as well as other Americans, will suffer irreparable harm in that (a) usurper will be sitting as the president of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal.”
On the American Thinker website, writer Randall Hoven took a shot those who don’t want the question pursued.
Hoven cited a David Horowitz analysis that said, “What difference does it make to the future of this country whether Obama was born on U.S. soil?”
“When the U.S. Constitution is clear on a matter, we are not supposed to re-think ‘what difference does it make to the future of this country.’ If we do this re-thinking at every step, we would not need a Constitution; we would merely cogitate on how proposal X will affect our future. In short, no need for a Constitution,” Hoven wrote.
He also cites a constitutional answer to the problem, quoting from the founding document; “If a president shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the president elect shall have failed to qualify, then the vice president elect shall act as president until a president shall have qualified …'”
“If we find that Obama is not natural born, then the Constitution says Joe Biden shall be president until the president thing gets sorted out. Everything about that is horrible. Unfortunately, it is exactly what the Constitution says we shall do. It does not ‘suggest’; it says ‘shall,'” he wrote.
He said the nation should be pursuing due process and due diligence.
“That, in my mind, is what we should be doing rather ignoring the entire matter because it is so unpleasant. We should also not be rope-a-doping the legal situation just to push the issue past January 20, 2009. Simply address the issue in a straightforward legal and constitutional manner.”
GOP presidential candidate John McCain during the campaign responded when his eligibility was questioned, due to the fact he was born to two U.S. citizens outside the boundaries of the 50 states.
In a column in Tulsa Today, several other legal challenges to Obama were listed. Besides the Donofrio, Berg and Wrotnowski cases, they include:
- A lawsuit by Chicago attorney Andy Martin in Hawaii seeking release of Obama’s vital statistics record.
- A case brought by the United States Justice Foundation in California on behalf of Alan Keyes, seeking to prevent California electors from voting for Obama until his eligibility is authenticated.
- A suit was filed in North Carolina by Lt. Col Donald Sullivan, alleging doubt about Obama’s citizenship.
- In Ohio, David M. Neal sued to force the secretary of state to document Obama’s birthplace.
- In Washington state, Steven Marquis sued seeking a determination on Obama’s citizenship.
- In Georgia, Tom Terry asked the state Supreme Court to authenticate Obama’s birth certificate.
The campaign included 6,682 packages of nine letters each delivered to the court on the case about Obama’s eligibility under the “a natural born citizen” requirement.
A petition drive also has collected more than 175,000 signatures – so far – from people who want to know the truth.
WND’s petition is available online, and more information is available at this link.