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I don’t think there’s any doubt that all Americans are harmed if the constitutional standard is not met and vouchsafed to us. Also, there is intrinsic “constitutional harm” in seating an ineligible President.

That said, one of the great problems here is that there is no procedure or process for vetting the nominee. At this point, it seems to be left solely to the haphazards of politics. However, even if a congresscritter or an elector got up the gumption to challenge a President-elect’s qualifications, the procedure for that is not clear, the *standard* is merely implied, and the remedy (who has standing to challenge the result or compliance and on what grounds) obviously is unclear.

Perhaps Obama will be seated as president but what has to happen is that this issue of what natural born citizenship means and how it applies to presidential candidates must go forward in order to avoid this problem in the future. This fight has to go forward not only to challenge Obama's eligibility but more importantly to serve the Constitution so we don't have a string of presidents who are actually ineligible as the founders envisioned. I think you would agree with me.

It appears to be a very complicated process but worth it. There are many on FR who would rather not even try to define natural born citizenship but avoiding this fight really is disrespectful to all those who fought for this country and died specifically for the survival of America and its Constitution. To let this issue die would be such a betrayal. Sure, we all have to live together but we all have to live by the law and be judged equally by it.