Posted on 05/06/2009 7:47:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
If Obama was not eligible then he is not the president, was not the president, has never been the president, and cannot be removed from office because he does not hold the office. Biden was elected vice-President, not President. Biden would only act as President until congress voted for a new President.
Right. There would not be any new election because the Constitution does not provide for that. It provides for the House of Representatives to pick a President.
Exactly.
The 20th Amendment does not apply because a president was qualified by the Electoral College and named the winner of the election. Obama qualified because he received the required number of electoral votes, 278 or more. If Obama became president through fraud then it does not invalidate the election or the Electoral College results. It does mean he's removed from office. In which case, Biden becomes president. Per the 25th Amendment.
Obama didn't swear he was a natural born citizen back in January, he swore to uphold the Constitution. At the time he was elected and sworn in, it was believed he was qualified. If he lied to get the nomination and be elected, then he'll be removed from office.
No, the President has been picked. The Constitution provides that if he is removed then the vice-president becomes president. Federal law states that if Biden is removed or found ineligible then succession would to to the Speaker of the House, the President-pro-temp of the Senate, and then through the cabinet starting with the Secretary of State and ending with the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Hardly.
If the Court declared Obama ineligible, there would be no vacancy in the presidency, because the VP elect (Biden) would become the Acting President.
There would be no "do-over election", because the XXth applies without requiring another election.
But none of that will happen, because the USSC will not allow the case to be heard.
“If he was indeed born ouside of the country to an unmarried mother he would be qualified under the immigration laws(immigration laws which were in effect as far back as the 1930’s IIRC) at that time to serve as President of the U.S.”
That would only be true IF his mother was 19 at the time of his birth but she was not, and thus under the law could not confer citizenship to the spawn.
Biden is not the VP elect. He's the Vice President. He became that back in January. So if Obama is found to be Constitutionally ineligible then he's removed from office and Biden becomes President, per the 25th Amendment.
There would be no "do-over election", because the XXth applies without requiring another election.
The 20th Amendment no longer applies because the winner of the November election was qualified by receiving more than 267 electoral votes. At this point it is the 25th Amendment that covers presidential succession.
But none of that will happen, because the USSC will not allow the case to be heard.
Yeah there's that whole darned standing issue, isn't there?
Please quote the relevant portion of the XXVth that gives the Court the power to remove a president.
You’re still missing it. If the Court decides that Obama failed to qualify, it would transport its through time to the moment just before the Senate counted the Electoral Votes, and declare that AT THAT MOMENT the person who was President elect AT THAT MOMENT had failed to qualify. Then, from THAT MOMENT the Vice President elect would become the Acting President until a President shall have qualified.
However, there is no provision for anyone to qualify under those circumstances, so Biden would be Acting President until the next regularly scheduled election.
Not legally.
Obama qualified because he received the required number of electoral votes, 278 or more.
Not legally. If Obama was ineligible then all those votes were wasted because they were cast for someone who cannot by definition be President of the United States.
If Obama became president through fraud then it does not invalidate the election or the Electoral College results.
Wrong. It absolutely does invalidate Obama's election and the results of the electoral college.
It does mean he's removed from office.
It means he was never legally the President at all, but a criminal usurper.
N-S, you say that he can be and is president regardless of his ineligibility, so it begs the question, why would he be removed if his election was valid, as you insist? If he is the president, despite the Constitution, then why wouldn't he just stay President? How is he to be constitutionally removed from office if his election was valid, as you claim?
So far as they knew at the time, yes.
If Obama was ineligible then all those votes were wasted because they were cast for someone who cannot by definition be President of the United States.
But they were cast by the electors of the states. There is nothing in the Constitution that I'm aware of that allows the courts or anyone else to override that. And there is also nothing that prevents them from being cast for a candidate who is ineligible to hold office.
Wrong. It absolutely does invalidate Obama's election and the results of the electoral college.
Based on what rule of law?
It means he was never legally the President at all, but a criminal usurper.
And would be removed.
I very much doubt that.
It would not be the 25th Amendment but Article III of the Constitution that would apply. The Supreme Court could rule that Obama is ineligible and that would force his removal.
Then please quote the relevant portion of Article III that gives the Court the power to remove a president from office.
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