The defense is not required to put on any witnesses and in this case chose not to (Obama was not a party to this suit). The plaintiffs presented the pdf and two “experts” to show it was a forgery but one (Feleicito Papa) was ruled not to be an expert and his testimony was disallowed and the other (Paul Irey) was only recognized as an expert in typesetting.
There is a presumption that the pdf is an image of the certified BC and will be considered authentic until someone produces evidence that it is not. Dr. Onaka has never testified one way or the other in court. And probably never will. But should it ever happen that someone does present credible evidence that pdf is some type of forgery, then we might actually see one of the certified copies in a court. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Full Faith and Credit only requires one state to recognize the records of another if that record has the certifying marks of genuineness from the issuing office. A PDF has no raised seal; this is not admissible as prima facia evidence of anything. There is NO presumption of legality without the certifying marks - which by virtue of Hawaii law have to be a RAISED seal, and a PDF cannot have that.
It’s absolutely ridiculous that a court would even consider a supposed “vital record” that isn’t in 3D when the certifying marks have to be in 3D. There is no legal way that a judge can say that a PDF of a vital record is genuine, and there is no presumption that it is. If the accusation is that the PDF is a forgery, then the evidence for it being a forgery have to be weighed against the evidence that it’s not. A genuine seal would be a good piece of evidence that it’s not a forgery. That’s never been presented. Nothing that would truly attest to the genuineness has ever been offered, and now the HDOH itself has said that the WH image is NOT a “true and accurate representation of the original record on file”. That’s pretty convincing evidence against the White House image’s genuineness.
The judiciary in the US is a sick, sick joke.
God will have the last laugh, though I doubt He will enjoy it much at all.