So does it all boil down to “jurisdiction.” Do you think SPOTUS will say they do not have “jurisdiction” here? I don’t think they will do this here.
Although if the Secretary of State did their job in each state and verified maybe we wouldn’t have needed to go to the SPOTUS.
I think the “natural born” issue is what it boils down to and not the actual original birth certificate. Leo Donofrio discussed it in great detail on Plain Radio a few days ago.
The NJ SoS (might have) looked at the evidence of Obama’s birth, and said, “good enough for me.” The suit at hand seeks to mandate that the SoS verify Obama’s citizenship status at birth. It wouldn’t be the court demanding documentation; it would be the court mandating that the NJ SoS demand documentation.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Court ruled that it lacks the jurisdiction to interfere with a state official doing her job. The Court generally won’t rule on a broad question if it can dispatch the case with a narrow one. Bush v. Gore was an exception, and an exceptional case where the court’s failure to act would have meant continued chaos; in the present case, if the court does nothing, the worst outcome is that the winner of the popular and electoral vote becomes president. There is not a lot of pressure on the justices to act.
There is another potential tack, that of enjoining the Electoral College from voting for Obama. That’s not what this suit seeks to do, and that would be an uphill battle, as the petitioner would be required to prove by (at least) a preponderance of the evidence that Obama is NOT a natural born citizen.