"He's not going to deny her a divorce as she claims "grievous mental suffering." BUT how's Judge King going to award custody — off of Ann's good word? I don't think so ... he'd turn to prima facie. I can hear his words now:"
“I'm going to ask for the mother to provide a copy of the birth certificate at our next hearing in March (1964). So ordered.”
I have to completely disagree with you on this one BP2. Yes the judge would take it off of Stanley Ann's (or her lawyer's word) on the divorce papers that Barack was her child.
I personally know of a marriage and divorce where the father was from a different country. There were 3 small children involved and the mother asked for custody but she didn't ask for child support. She knew with the father back in his country it would be impossible to collect. The Judge never questioned the mother in any of the statements she put on her "do it yourself" divorce papers. No Birth Certificates, No DNA nor her Marriage Certificate was ever asked to be put into the divorce records. He took her word for everything she put in those papers. She was awarded full custody.
In fact I know of many divorces with under age children and they never ask for copies of Birth Certificates to be filed with the divorce papers.
You are undoubtedly unaware that in 1964 immigration had a fairly rigid quota system, country based, as in not to exceed applicants from each country.
Further more, all legal aliens be they on student visas, work visa, or with permanent resident status, etc. had to register with the INS every January, listing residence, place of employment, occupation, marital status including children. Had you been an adult then you could not have missed the posters and forms in every post office, the TV and radio commercials and work place personnel managers checking on their foreign employees and reminding them to register with Immigration And Naturaliztion.
So to question the immigration status of the father and child would have been not only prudent but mandatory. That would include showing entry visas, passports which would have listed dependent children and their vital statistics. Given that the father was a foreign national the burden of proof of parenthood would on Stanley Ann’s shoulders.
The INS were not so careless back then in demanding bona fides.
Nah.
Might happen in a given courtroom before a particular judge who decided he needed to do it that way. But in most jurisdictions, court rule requires a birth certificate for all minor children--not likely to get a judge to back off, particularly in an ex parte case.