Posted on 02/04/2011 5:52:07 AM PST by Libloather
Christensen introduces 'birther bill'
Emily Nohr
Nebraska News Service
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Nebraska has joined several other states in introducing a "birther" bill, a piece of legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship from candidates for the nation's highest political offices.
The 14-page bill, sponsored by District 44 State Sen. Mark Christensen of Holdrege, would prohibit placing presidential and vice presidential candidates on the state's ballot unless they provide a certified, long-form version of their birth certificate to Nebraska's secretary of state.
Christensen's bill would also require candidates to provide their parents' certified long-form birth certificates. If a person's birth father is unknown, Christensen said a candidate would have to file an affidavit with the state, stating that they have no reason to believe their father is not a U.S. citizen.
The Nebraska Vital Records website contains no option to request a long form birth certificate. Christensen said he had not talked to Nebraska Vital Records staff, but modeled the bill's language after what has been used in other states.
Similar legislation has been proposed in other states, including Arizona, Texas and Connecticut.
(Excerpt) Read more at mccookgazette.com ...
Anybody know if this has a realistic chance of passing?
Yes GO NEBRASKA
Better an Obama Birther than an Obama Supporter
Not needed. Twentieth Amendment, section three already requires that Congress enforce eligibility standards. In fact, anyone at the state level such as state representatives and senators has standing to go into court to ensure that section three was complied with.
Christensen can go before a judge any time he chooses and demand to see that section three was enforced and what was provided to Congress. That’s actually easier to do and quicker than trying to pass this law. If he isn’t willing to do this little bit, his law will be just as useless.
If you are right, then what harm is it to expressly spell it out in statute? One sure thing a statute gives you is standing before the evasive judges.
3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. 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; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.
In addition to the Constitution, here is U.S. law...
U. S. Code, CITE: 3USC19
TITLE 3--THE PRESIDENT, CHAPTER 1- PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND VACANCIES
Sec. 19. Vacancy in offices of both President and Vice President; officers eligible to act
(a)(1) If, by reason of death, resignation, removal from office, inability, or failure to qualify, there is neither a President nor Vice President to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, upon his resignation as Speaker and as Representative in Congress, act as President.
Once again, from the U. S. Constitution, Article Six Oath of Office for elected officials:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Anyone serving in Congress (see Congress in bold in section three of the Twentieth Amendment), or anyone who is currently serving under the oath of office in Article six has "standing" and can DEMAND that their oaths be met by receiving proper qualifying documentation from Mr. Obama. They may do so at any time they so choose. The very fact that they are duty-bound by oath to "support" the Constitution REQUIRES them to respond to any and all attacks against it. No judge can deny any of them the standing to do so. It would ask them to break the law in their effort to enforce the law.
My point is that according to the U.S. Constitution itself, they can challenge it now without state laws.
Do any of these state bills require presidential candidates prove that they meet the Constitutional eligibility requirement of being a Natural Born Citizen (as opposed to being just a "citizen")?
If not, Americans are being hoodwinked.
A Natural Born Citizen is one who was born in the USA to two parents who were US citizens at the time of that birth.
That’s worked out well so far, hasn’t it?
Mark Christensen is not of Holdrege- he is from Imperial Nebraska which is way west of here in a different district.
Ernie Chambers will be screamig racism.
He’s always screaming racism. Fortunately, he was also term-limited out of the legislature.
How nice for the rest of the state that he is term limited. I thought North Omamha would never get rid of him. I grew up there and remember him in the 70'and 80's.
That’s a good cartoon. Re: the NE bill, am I the only one who finds it a bit surreal? So in the *future* a presidential candidate will have to prove two citizen parents. What about the guy in the white hut right now? Do the bill’s sponsors see no issue with his claiming a British-citizen father In His Own Freaking Bio? Are they saying the current occupant gets a pass, but ***future*** candidates have to qualify?
That’s like standing in front of a massive, raging fire that is destroying people, homes and property, and saying, ‘In the future, we’ll mandate that fires have to be nipped in the bud, long before they get this big’. Maybe the fire that is *already underway* should be extinguished, before attention is turned to fires of the future?
Or maybe it is an open secret in DC that Obama Sr is not Barry Soetoro’s father. Maybe most pols know [could Pelosi have spread this through back-channel routes?] that Malcolm X or Marshall is the sperm donor. Otherwise, how can a pol stand there with a straight face and talk about he necessity of two citizen parents??
Or maybe it is an open secret in DC that Obama Sr is not Barry Soetoros father. Maybe most pols know [could Pelosi have spread this through back-channel routes?] that Malcolm X or Marshall is the sperm donor. Otherwise, how can a pol stand there with a straight face and talk about he necessity of two citizen parents??
I’m with you, it’s gotta be an open secret among the MSM and the DC critters that the biological father was an American citizen. That’s why they want to drop the whole eligibility issue.
I know of a very Christian family that owns a printing business in Nebraska named Joe Christensen, Inc. I wonder if he is related to them?
While it’s true that congress is required to enforce Article 2 , they are not! It appears that the states are going to enforce the Constitution. This bill is the first to actually spell out that to ba a Natural Born citizen requires that the parents be U.S. citizens. This would be a major step forward if passed.
While it’s true that congress is required to enforce Article 2 , they are not! It appears that the states are going to enforce the Constitution. This bill is the first to actually spell out that to ba a Natural Born citizen requires that the parents be U.S. citizens. This would be a major step forward if passed.
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