Posted on 12/03/2008 11:43:31 PM PST by BP2
By James Wright
AFRO Staff Writer
(December 3, 2008) - In a highly unusual move, U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked his colleagues on the court to consider the request of an East Brunswick, N.J. attorney who has filed a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obamas status as a United States citizen.
Thomass action took place after Justice David Souter had rejected a petition known as an application for a stay of writ of certiorari that asked the court to prevent the meeting of the Electoral College on Dec. 15, which will certify Obama as the 44th president of the United States and its first African-American president.
The court has scheduled a Dec. 5 conference on the writ -- just 10 days before the Electoral College meets.
The high courts only African American is bringing the matter to his colleagues as a result of the writ that was filed by attorney Leo Donofrio. Donofrio sued the New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Wells, contending that Obama was not qualified to be on the states presidential ballot because of Donofrios own questions about Obama citizenship.
Donofrio is a retired lawyer who identifies himself as a citizens advocate. The AFRO learned that he is a contributor to naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com, a Web site that raises questions about Obamas citizenship.
Calls made to Donofrios residence were not returned to the AFRO by press time.
Donofrio is questioning Obamas citizenship because the former Illinois senator, whose mom was from Kansas, was born in Hawaii and his father was a Kenyan national. Therefore, Donofrio argues, Obamas dual citizenship does not make Obama a natural born citizen as required by Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution, which states:
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President
...to prevent the meeting of the Electoral College on Dec. 15, which
will certify Obama as the 44th president of the United States...
Donofrio had initially tried to remove the names not only of Obama, but also the names of Republican Party presidential nominee John McCain and Socialist Workers Party Roger Calero from appearing on the Nov. 4 general election ballot in his home state of New Jersey.
McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone when it was a U.S. possession. Calero would be ineligible to be president because he was born in Nicaragua.
After his efforts were unsuccessful in the New Jersey court system, he decided to take his case to a higher level.
On Nov. 6, Souter denied the stay. Donofrio, following the rules of the procedure for the Supreme Court, re-submitted the application as an emergency stay in accordance to Rule 22, which states, in part, that an emergency stay can be given to another justice, which is the choice of the petitioner.
Donofrios choice was Thomas. He submitted the emergency stay to Thomass office on Nov. 14. Thomas accepted the application on Nov. 19 and on that day, submitted it for consideration by his eight colleagues - known as a conference - and scheduled it for Dec. 5.
On Nov. 26, a supplemental brief was filed by Donofrio to the clerks office of the Supreme Court. A letter to the court explaining the reason for the emergency stay was filed on Dec. 1 at the clerks office.
Thomass actions were rare because, by custom, when a justice rejects a petition from his own circuit, the matter is dead. Even if, as can be the case under Rule 22, the matter can be submitted to another justice for consideration, that justice out of respect, will reject it also, said Trevor Morrison, a professor of law at Columbia University School of Law.
Morrison said that Thomass actions are once in a decade. When that does happen, the case has to be of an extraordinary nature and this does not fit that circumstance, he said. My guess would be that Thomas accepted the case so it would go before the conference where it will likely be denied. If Thomas denied the petition, then Donofrio would be free to go to the other justices for their consideration.
This way, I would guess, the matter would be done with. Petitions of Donofrios types are hardly ever granted.
Traditionally, justices do not respond to media queries, according to a spokesman from the Supreme Court Public Information Office.
Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 and has been one of its most conservative members.
Before his ascension to the court, he was appointed by Bush to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Earlier, he served as chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - appointed by President Reagan - and worked various jobs under former Republican Sen. John Danforth.
It would take a simple majority of five justices to put Donofrios emergency stay on the oral argument docket. Because it is an emergency by design, the argument would take place within days.
Donofrio wants the court to order the Electoral College to postpone its Dec. 15 proceedings until it rules on the Obama citizenship. He is using the 2000 case Bush vs. Gore case as precedent, arguing that it is of such compelling national interest that it should be given priority over other cases on the courts docket.
The same conditions apply here, Donofrio said in his letter to the court, as the clock is ticking down to Dec. 15, the day for the Electoral College to meet.
Audrey Singer, a senior fellow at Washingtons Brookings Institution, who is an expert on immigration, said that the Donofrio matter is going nowhere.
There is no way that anyone can argue about whether Barack Obama is a citizen, Singer said. In this country, we have a system known as jus soli or birthright by citizenship. You are a citizen by being born on American soil and he (Obama) was born in Hawaii.
Singer said that Donofrios argument that Obamas father was a Kenyan national does not matter because citizenship is not based on parentage, but on where someone was born.
This is the issue that some people have with illegal aliens in our country, she said. Children of illegal aliens, if they are born in the United States, are U.S. citizens. That is in the U.S. Constitution.
Thursday morning, and I’m catching up on last night’s posts...
Natural Born Citizen vs. Regular US Citizen.
Source:
http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/
You can spend an hour on Leo Donofrio’s website, reading lenghty commentaries on constitutional law.
I recommend to bookmark it.
There are dozens of details we have never discussed or paid attention to that Donofrio has researched.
For any newbies, we DO KNOW, the short form Birth Certification, as shown on Factcheck.org, is a FORGERY!!
I want to keep hammering this. Factcheck.org, being owned by Annenberg, is not a reliable source of information.
NEVER trust Factcheck.org.
Proof is here:
http://polarik.blogtownhall.com/
Unless I missed something, Donofrio is only holding the NJ SoS liable for not acknowledging what was made public by Obama himself, via his own “forged” COLB. If they are going to rule as to what is printed on his his COLB (forged or not), rather than its accuracy, I just do not see a path to the original birth records for his case.
>>> What law says that? It certainly isn’t defined that way in the COTUS.
Calenel, there are plenty of SCOTUS cases that support that definition of NBC.
However, if you go with “it isn’t defined that way in the COTUS” Theory, the Justices will go back and make an “Originalist” determination of what the Framers “meant.” That works against Obama EVEN MORE.
Pick your poison.
bttt
if you’re going to quote the U.S. Constitution, at least do it with some respect and do it accurately.
Perhaps the fact that the state of Hawaii itself does not always recognize the short form COLB to be proof of birth location? Somewhere along this long, torturous epic it has been stated that in order to qualify for some sort of "homestead" status in HI, the short form COLB is insuffecient. If it (COLB) is not good enough for Hawaii, then how can it be for the NJ SoS or SCOTUS?
“...The revolution will be live.”
It *will* be on the internet though! :)
Really? Listen, you might as well pray for aliens to come to Earth and kidnap Obama so he can't become President, because that's about as likely as the Supreme Court ruling that he isn't eligible.
Not going to happen. But it will be interesting to watch the gnashing of teeth tomorrow morning when the Court denies cert.
Factually incorrect. A natural born citizen is anyone born within the United States. How do I know? Because I'm a natural born citizen and when I was born neither of my parents were citizens. I've done all the legal footwork on this. It's a fact.
This entire “Obama is not a natural born citizen” episode is very silly. Sure he could have stopped it early on but I think he's enjoying the sight of a bunch of people make fools of themselves.
Obama was born in Kenya , as his relatives have repeatedly said. Notice that AFRO says nothing about that.Why?
Our nation is divided now into free patriots and those who wish to abandon our constitution for "socially secure" bondage. Many of us go not quietly into that dark.
Many of us will fight it regardless of cost or consequence.
PRESENT!
And the passage from our Constitution reads 'natural born or citizen of the U.S. ...'
However, under current laws and practice, birthright citizenship exists and has existed ever since the 14th amendment was adopted. We have 400,000 anchor babies born each year to illegal alien parents. These anchor babies are treated just like every other US citizen and have the same rights and privileges, including a US passport upon demonstrating they were born here. The only exception is childred born to accredited diplomats to the US.
If a decision ever does come before SCOTUS, current law and practice for more than 100 years will have an impact on any ruling. IMO, if Obama was born in the US, he is a US citizen.
I agree with you. Howver if Obama was born overseas, it is an entirely different matter.
“Perhaps the fact that the state of Hawaii itself does not always recognize the short form COLB to be proof of birth location? Somewhere along this long, torturous epic it has been stated that in order to qualify for some sort of “homestead” status in HI, the short form COLB is insuffecient. If it (COLB) is not good enough for Hawaii, then how can it be for the NJ SoS or SCOTUS? “
Those are all good questions, but if Donofrio is not contending such concerns in his case, then how would they ever be brought up in court?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.