Nighttime in Vegas and this is what people see

Even the U.S. Supreme Court is avoiding the issue, but visitors in Las Vegas are confronted with the question on a billboard that is, well, the size of a billboard.

The issue is Barack Obama's eligibility to be president under the U.S. Constitution's demand that all presidents be a "natural born citizen."

There are critics in at least two camps: those who say that the document he released and represented to be his Hawaiian birth certificate isn't real and he wasn't born in the U.S., making him ineligible; and those who say his birth certificate doesn't matter; that the Framers of the U.S. Constitution precluded anyone who wasn't born in the U.S. and whose parents weren't citizens.

Support the "Where's the Real Birth Certificate?" billboard campaign.

Obama's father, a British subject, was a student in the U.S. for several years, but never a citizen.

The question

Question for Las Vegas visitors

That the Supreme Court justices are avoiding it comes from no less than a member of the court. Justice Clarence Thomas appeared before a U.S. House subcommittee when the issue arose. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., raised the question amid a discussion on racial diversity in the judiciary.

"I'm still waiting for the [court decision] on whether or not a Puerto Rican can run for president of the United States," said Serrano, who was born in the island territory. "That's another issue."

Yet after Serrano questioned him on whether or not the land's highest court would be well-served by a justice who had never been a judge, Thomas not only answered in the affirmative but also hinted that Serrano would be better off seeking a seat in the Supreme Court than a chair in the Oval Office.

"I'm glad to hear that you don't think there has to be a judge on the court," said Serrano, "because I'm not a judge; I've never been a judge."

"And you don't have to be born in the United States," said Thomas, referring to the Constitution, which requires the president to be a natural-born citizen but has no such requirement for a Supreme Court justice, "so you never have to answer that question."

"Oh really?" asked Serrano. "So you haven't answered the one about whether I can serve as president, but you answer this one?"

"We're evading that one," answered Thomas, referring to questions of presidential eligibility and prompting laughter in the chamber. "We're giving you another option."

Vegas at night:

Question for Las Vegas visitors

The "Where's the Birth Certificate?" campaign was launched by WND Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah in May of 2009. At the time, only a very small percentage of Americans even were aware of the eligibility questions surrounding Obama.

Since then more than 90 billboards have been placed nationwide. It was within six months of its launch that polls showed most Americans were aware of the controversy. Six months later, most Americans doubted Obama's eligibility.

In April of this year, when Jerome Corsi's book of the same title – "Where's the Birth Certificate?" – hit No. 1 on the Amazon best-seller's list, the White House realized it could no longer stonewall the issue. One week later, the so-called "long-form birth certificate" was posted on the White House website. Media outlets quickly accepted the document as genuine without examination, analysis or question. But WND has since produced a shocking series of reports that point in the direction of fabrication.

"I promised a long time ago that this issue would follow Obama through the 2012 campaign," said Farah. "This is the realization of that promise."

The Vegas Strip billboard arrives just as Corsi's book is being prepared to come out as an e-book.

The question is raised because the U.S. Constitution allows only a "natural born citizen" to be a president, and that was largely understood when it was written to be the offspring of two citizen parents born on the nation's soil. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court even has expressed that opinion.

There remain many questions about Obama's purported Hawaiian birth, and some say the constitutional requirement precludes Obama's eligibility to be president even if he proves a Hawaiian birth, as his father never was a citizen.

The new billboard is across the street and up just a bit from the Trump Hotel Las Vegas. Behind the board is a major project that was called Fountainblue, now referred to as Turnbury Towers.

The billboard address is 3000 Las Vegas Blvd and Convention Center Drive.

At the recent CNN-Tea Party GOP debate in Tampa, Fla., the question starred – on a flying billboard.

A plane soared overhead trailing a banner demanding, "Where's the Real Birth Certificate?"

Aerial banner over Tampa

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The flying billboard immediately grabbed the attention of the Miami Herald, which wrote, "Jobs, schmobs. The WorldNetDaily website, which hypes the Obama-is-not-a-US-citizen line, is flying a banner around the site of the CNN Republican presidential debate to keep the story alive: Where is the real birth certificate?"

"Countless document experts have now made the persuasive case that the birth certificate released by Obama is fraudulent – a case that has been well-chronicled in WND," said Farah. "No other media outlet has bothered to examine the document or question its authenticity. Neither have they found any experts willing to suggest the birth certificate is valid. That's why I am taking this case directly to the American people," he said.

Trump, the high profile mega-millionaire, repeatedly has questioned Obama's qualifications, starting off several months ago.

He repeated his stance just recently on the CNN Piers Morgan show when he was confronted with the challenge, "Do you accept what he produced as valid?"

The question was about the image of a Hawaiian "Certificate of Live Birth" that was released by the White House in April, a document that imaging experts have stated on the record they doubt is real.

Trump, who in April claimed credit for creating the circumstances that prompted Obama to release the "Certificate" image, was blunt.

"No, I don't necessarily accept it," he said.

"Do you believe he was probably born in America?" Morgan pressed.

"He might have been," Trump said.

"What does your gut tell you, because you are a smart guy," Morgan continued.

"My gut tells me couple things. No. 1, you know, it took a long time to produce this certificate, and when it came out, as you know, check out the Internet, many people say it is not real, you know, that it's a forgery," Trump said. "They go over it, and lots of different things and lots of different reasons."

He continued, "The other thing is, nobody has been able to see, you know, the day of his birth, they had twins born, they had another one born. Nobody has been able to find any records that he was born in that hospital."