IF- it is true- the ramifications for the country are alarming. When is this going to be disclosed- or if not ture- otherwise put to rest...
The lawyer's reaction of alarm is probably a little different than the average citizen. What the constitution says in Article II, Sec. 1, Par. 4 is that "[n]o person . . . shall be eligible to the office of President . . . . " unless they are "natural born".
So assume the issue is not laid to rest--he is nominated, and elected, and purports to be in office. All of his acts are void because he is not "eligible" to be President--and should be open to challenge in any available legal forum. I don't think they are likely to get away with faking it for that reason.
I am going to use the opportunity to respond to you to sum up the current status of the effort and effect of this issue.
I assume there is some factual background behind the Israel news reports regarding the investigation and product thereof, Kenya birth records demonstrating that Obama was born there. I assume further that he will never be able to produce a provable Certificate of his birth in Hawaii although it should be recognized that the Hawaii birth records employees are probably Liberals who support Obama and who will participate in any reasonable effort to support his position.
But, it is not clear how you construct a legal challenge to his candidacy.
There isn't any obvious "start suit" avenue because there is no direct present controversy between the position that he is not eligible and the position that he is--for the reason that the argument is still hypothetical; he may not be nominated; he may not be elected. So the court's would generally hold there is no "present case or controversy".
And there is also legal doubt who would have legal "standing" to pursue such a claim.
There is factual doubt--it is important that whoever makes the first political attack have as much real hard data as is available; there are still opportunities for investigation in both Hawaii and in Kenya. Work is ongoing.
And there is political doubt. The Clinton's are concerned that if they are seen as behind a challenge at this point, it would impair their ability to get the nomination when Obama falls. Further, there is some deal that not only gets Mrs. Clinton support in paying her campaign debt but also commits to "consider" her for Vice President. The Clinton's believe that her nomination as Vice President, followed by his removal from the top of the ticket on grounds of ineligibility to serve, would be her best avenue to the White House. So they are presently standing still.
And there are political reservations among Republicans on several grounds. Later is better; McCain has a similar exposure; and there will be a political backlash against the perpetrators.
So this isn't going to move very fast in July and the first half of August.
Pressure from the internet would help. Further, organizing an independent financial effort that raised financial support, probably in the range of five million dollars, might have sufficient resources to effectively pursue the issue in some legal or political setting. At present, that kind of effort does not appear.
In this context, it should be noted that someone has sufficient resources to have started federal court actions in every state in which McCain won the primary seeking as a remedy, decertification of the McCain delegates on the grounds of his ineligibility to serve. McCain forces have not, to the best of my present knowledge, mounted any effective effort to have any of these cases dismissed on procedural grounds.
If I had sufficient resources to pursue the effort, I might consider seeking to consolidate all the McCain actions in a multi-district litigation forum with a similar attack on the Obama delegates. Obviously, the court you chose needs to be amenable to the fact that the case requires a fast track to get a resolution. That kind of effort would work only now--weeks hence is too late.
If there aren’t enough resources to challenge him now; who would be in the position to challenge his acts, to render them void, if he ever obtained the position of Presidency?
There is an entire Net reach of resources, many of us just need instructions. Can we start a campaign of contacting the USDOJs of various state offices? Or the Election Law offices of various states? Just tell us what needs to be done.
Whew...
So as a non-lawyer, I’m assuming a few simple FOI requests for relevant documents would be insufficient.
Of course I expect for those requests to have weight, there would need to be some kind of background proof- probable cause- sort of information.
So if the Demagogues wake up one morning and suddenly realize they have to amend the US Constitution in order that a President Obama may lawfully serve, it will be ‘interesting’ to see what ensues...... since I don’t think a successful effort to amend the Constitution would take place in less a year, even if they could pull it off...... unless both parties decide they have to pull together and do it for McCain + Obama.