Legal Experts Doubt Obama Citizenship Challenges Will Succeed

by Karen Hatter | December 10, 2008 at 10:34 pm

662 views | 18 Recommendations | 7 comments

Two days before the U.S. Supreme Court was scheduled to consider hearing the lawsuit submitted by Leo Donofrio of New Jersey on December 5, 2008, challenging President Elect Barack Obama's citizenship, another lawsuit was filed with the court.

According to Afro.com, Orly Taiz, of California, filed another citizenship challenge with the Supreme Court on December 3, 2008, after her suit, Lightfoot vs. Bowen, was rejected through all levels of the California court system.

The article states that the court's decision on the Donofrio lawsuit, issued on December 8, 2008, may signal, for future lawsuits, that the court has already addressed the matter of the President Elect's citizenship status.

Constitutional law scholar, William Marshall, at the University of North Carolina School Of Law, also a member of the board of the Washington-based American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, is quoted as saying, “I would guess that the court did not find the matter a serious enough constitutional issue to grant a hearing.”

The Supreme Court dismissed the Donofrio suit without comment.

From Afro.com:

“Americans are known to be litigious but suing Barack Obama out of the presidency because of questions about his citizenship gives new meaning to the term ‘frivolous lawsuit,’” said Washington, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a constitutional law scholar and long-time professor of law at Georgetown University Law School in a statement.

“Obama was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father, and the president-elect has a Hawaiian birth certificate,” she added. And, even though the matter was never litigated, “in this nation of immigrants, even the children of illegal immigrants are considered to be ‘natural-born citizens’ if born in the United States.” She added that the purpose of the 14th Amendment, which first carried the language, was to ensure that slaves, who had never been counted as citizens, would be equal citizens.

Also from the article, regarding the Taiz lawsuit:

Taiz’s applications are essentially the same as Donofrio’s, according to her petition for extraordinary emergency writ of mandamus for stay of certification of the 2008 presidential election, but her case was filed in California. Taiz is alleging that California Secretary of State Debra Bowen did not investigate the eligibility of Obama before placing him on the state’s ballot.

Click here to read the original article.

Also at NowPublic:

U.S. Supreme Court Dismisses Challenge to Obama Presidency

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

dfaugust2k (not verified)

at 16:15 on December 12th, 2008

-let me point out first, that there is a standing suit questioning the eligibility of Hussian Obama's candidacy for the office he was seemingly (-ACORN) elected to, brought forth by a genuine African American:

Alan Lee Keyes (born August 7, 1950) is a conservative American political activist, author, and former diplomat, and perennial candidate for public office. He ran for President of the United States in 1996, 2000, and 2008, and was a Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1988, 1992, and 2004. Keyes served in the U.S. Foreign Service, was appointed Ambassador Economic and Social Council of the United Nations under President Ronald Reagan, and served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987.

- there are numerous, fine, upstanding African American conservatives that have served, and continue to serve, the American public in many various positions of political power ; Clarence Thomas, Condalisa Rice, Booker T. Washington, Bobby Seale (-former Founder, Chairman and National Organizer of the Black Panther Party and famously a strong supporter of Ronald Wilson Reagan), Kathleen M. Bravo, Stuart DeVeaux, Thomas Sowell, J. A. Parker, etc., etc., etc.,

-why is it that the scum-bag democRATs continue to find the lowest forms of criminal life to bring forth as examples of African-America and then holler "racism" whenever a resonable legal charge is brought against them? And what of the cowardly simple-minded dogs in the left-wing mainstream views media? When are they going to write a story about Hussian's dirty financial dealings? his meager "support" and "service" in the US senate? His confessed use of cocaine, or his aledged dabblings in homosexuality? His questionable collection of criminal mentors and "friends"? -No, it's folk like them and you who hope and pray (-to "Allah", I suppose) that the only thing the mainstreams cover is his questionable citizenship. You should hope he is forced out of office on this basis, for his sake and the future of your beloved leftist democRATic party.

dunkelberg

at 16:35 on December 12th, 2008

It is amazing that Boy George and crew whine about "activist judges". Hell, Texas Sen. John Cornyn even said he understands why people shoot them.

Yet, they go scampering off to the courthouse with nonsense such as this at the drop of a hat.

Can you say hypocrites?

dfaugust2k (not verified)

at 17:03 on December 12th, 2008

AXJ (not verified)

at 17:15 on January 23rd, 2009

AXJ-Kenya has apparently uncovered some interesting documentation. www.axjus.com

René

at 18:29 on January 23rd, 2009

Indeed, an interesting site, tho I couldn't find AXJ-Kenya.

René

at 18:46 on January 23rd, 2009

Find it troubling that Senator Obama had no problem with vetting McCain on the legitimate citizen issue, but has spent many thousands avoiding it for himself.

And, Congress when asked to vet Obama before the electoral vote declined because the Supreme Courts declined. Kinda weird IMHO.

taino21 (not verified)

at 20:03 on March 30th, 2009

First, Ms. Taiz case at the Supreme Court was not even looked at, some patsy for the obama camp erase the case out of the computer and the files never given to the Supremes. According to the patsy it was a computer error, but, all the other cases in the same computer were not erased. Just because liberal judges who are legislating from the bench instead of applying the law don't want to hear the cases does not mean that they are right. "We the people", according to them have no standing in questioning the highest post on the land? "We the people who pay their salaries have no standing? My father who is now 84yrs is a WWII and Korean Vet. I am a Vietnam Era Vet and a Veteran of Desert Storm, both of my children are Veterans of Iraqui Freedom, Bosnia and Enduring Freedom and "We", had to show our birth certificates to place our life on the line to defend the Constitution Of The United States and "We" have no standing to question this man's qualifications to be POTUS, how many seconds have he spent in a battle zone? Everyone wants to burry their heads under the sand like the Ostrich but all they have to do is read is book, in which he ADMITS of living and going to school in Indonesia. At the time the only way he could have attended public school in Indonesia was to be an Indonesian citizen. Obviously his mother decided to give away their U.S. citizenship, thus, the only way he could have become a U.S. citizen again, since Indonesia and the USA did not have dual citizenship agreement at the times, was to naturalize, thus, making him ineligible to hold the office of POTUS according to the constitution.