Let me add one more possible scenario, even if improbable, given the people upon whom we would depend to enact it:
One or two State Governors, and Attorneys General decide to keep whatsisname off their states' ballots.
They are backed by their legislatures
This throws their decision into the courts: State Supreme court, then appeal to the SCOTUS.
No matter the decision, one side or the other would appeal.
Then, using the powers granted by the 25th Amendmendment, Congress finds him unfit, of course by then it would already be 2012. Whatsisname goes away and we have a working definition of "Natural Born citizen."
Caveat: this scenario fell into my hands when a beautiful, pink pig flew by my place and dropped it. And Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you too, Kenny.
And with that post you summed up the scenario that my proposed eligibility bill would seek to create, to close up the problems of “standing” and the Constitution’s requirement that presidential elections be governed by the states but the Constitution be interpreted by the courts.
The scenario you mentioned seems to me, after all this time of trying to process the claims made by everybody, to be the only way the Constitutional requirements for the POTUS and VP can actually mean anything in practical terms.
Let me know what you think.
Let me add one more possible scenario, even if improbable, given the people upon whom we would depend to enact it:
One or two State Governors, and Attorneys General decide to keep whatsisname off their states’ ballots.
They are backed by their legislatures
This throws their decision into the courts: State Supreme court, then appeal to the SCOTUS.
No matter the decision, one side or the other would appeal.
Then, using the powers granted by the 25th Amendmendment, Congress finds him unfit, of course by then it would already be 2012. Whatsisname goes away and we have a working definition of “Natural Born citizen.”
Caveat: this scenario fell into my hands when a beautiful, pink pig flew by my place and dropped it. And Happy New Year!
Because the Federal Government has long (10 years) accepted a Hawaii Certification of Live Birth (COLB) for passport purposes, Obama can use a certified copy of his short form birth certificate to get on the ballot in every state in 2012. The short form COLB contains all the information necessary to determine eligibility to run for president except the 14 year residence in the US requirement. No birth certificate contains that last bit of required documentation.
The reason the new Democrat Governor of Hawaii is seeking to release Obama’s original long form is to have it ready for any state challenges in 2012. I predict it will be released by this coming February.