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.
If you think that in 2008 the USSC is going to recognize that there are "first class" (natural born) and "second class" Americans citizens, all born on American soil, you're crazy.
So, we couldn't charge them with a crime or make them pay taxes? Are you claiming that the children of illegals effectively have diplomatic immunity?
“... we dont demand that in order to be a citizen you must renounce all other national ties.”
at one point in time, during my more productive years, foreign nationals becoming naturalized US citizens, were required to denounce their previous citizenship.
Just a coincidence? Yeah, right...
Haha!!! Love your comment re: post #21!
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
“If youre born in the United States, you are a citizen of the US. Period.”
Yes, one born on US soil is a US citizen. But unless one’s parents were citizens, he/she is not a “natural born” citizen.
Chester Alan Arthur was the son of Irish born preacher William Arthur and Vermont born Malvina Stone Arthur. He was President from 1881-85.
One thing is for sure -
Thomas’ wife is NOT going to be welcome in the black social circles in DC...
American bases and embassies are not US territory. That is simply an urban myth. If they were American territory, the host countries could not kick us out of them without leading to a war. Being born on a military base or embassy does not, in of itself, grant citizenship.
But, the children of American citizens born overseas, whether on a military base or not, are American citizens from birth and qualify to serve as President under the COTUS.
You, and Donofrio, are creating artificial distinctions that do no exist in either the COTUS or Federal law. There are only two classes of American citizen: naturalized (who cannot serve as President) and citizens from birth (who can).
Piyush Jindal (pronounced /ˈdʒɪndəl/) was born on June 10, 1971 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Punjabi Indian immigrants Amar and Raj Jindal, who had recently arrived for Raj to attend graduate school at Louisiana State University. His mother Amar left India and his ancestral family village of Khanpura in 1970.
One born on US soil is a US citizen.
One born on US soil of US citizen parents is a “natural born” citizen.
I heard Leo Donofrio state that his case was referred to Conference by the whole court, not just Justice Thomas. Leo said that that was a good sign.
Which is completely irrelevant under US law. A parent cannot renounce their minor child's US citizenship under US law.
The U.S. requires immigrants applying for naturalization to renounce their previous citizenship.
No, it doesn't. I became a naturalized US citizen in 2007. I still remain a citizen of 2 other countries, which is perfectly legal under US law.
That is not the question. U.S. law, and Supreme Court decisions, both state that a person born in the U.S. is a citizen at birth. What is the difference between ‘citizen at birth’ and ‘natural born citizen’ and where is this difference defined by law?
What about persons born abroad to Amcit parents? Natural born or not?
And only natural born citizens, or persons who are citizens of the U.S. while the Constitution was being adopted, are eligible to become President, Correct?
You just made this up.
Andrew Jackson was the son of two parents who were not born on U.S. soil. Five other presidents (Thomas Jefferson, James Buchanan, Chester Arthur, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover) each had one parent not born on U.S. soil. Obama would be the sixth president to have one parent not born on U.S. soil.
This "natural born = both parents born on U.S. soil" argument is completely bogus and fabricated and exists nowhere in the U.S. Constitution.
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