Posted on 04/14/2011 9:10:16 AM PDT by Plutarch
Get set for a constitutional crisis in America. It’s not a certainty, but it’s certainly a possibility following the decision of the Arizona state senate to enact a measure to require a presidential candidate to present a birth certificate before he or she can get listed on the presidential ballot in the Grand Canyon State. It comes at the start of a presidential campaign in which President Obama is brushing aside demands that he authorize the release of an original certificate of his birth at Hawaii. This is the issue that Donald Trump has been trying to stir up at a national level, and Arizona is not the only state looking at such a law. So we may yet be confronted with the question in respect of who gets to decides ballot access in the presidential contest.
It happens that this is dealt with in the Constitution. It is in section 1 of Article II, which sets up the presidency and requires that the president be a natural born citizen. It also sets up the electoral college. After the fiasco that paired John Adams as president and Thos. Jefferson as vice president, the 12th amendment was brought in to streamline the electoral college. But the method of choosing electors was unchanged. It says that they shall be appointed by each state “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct . . .” The only restriction the Constitution puts on what the states can do is that no senator or representative or person holding an office of Trust under the United States can be made an elector...
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(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
The courts are fraught with peril for Obama. First there is the PR hit. All but Obamabots must ask 'Why is he doing this?' Moreover, if the Justice Department sues, he will be using the taxpayers to fund his campaign's legal issues. And suing will be tantamount to admission that he is illegible.
And this will not be legal action against the likes of a crackpot dentist, but one of the united States exercising its Constitutional duty. Then there is this thing called Discovery, the prospect of which repels the Regime as does sunlight a vampire.
It will only take a single state having a proof of eligibility law in effect for that state’s presidential primary will derail BHO’s ability to run for a second term.
If a law is in effect, look for either BHO to find a plausible reason to not run for a second term, or look for his supporters to throw up the world’s largest storm of organic refuse in an attempt to intimidate that state into not enforcing the law.
We will see how this all plays out very shortly.
If the Dems. throw Obama under the bus ,they will never get the black vote again and will they find someone as destructive as O?
She's both. More to be celebrated for courage, enthusiasm and doggedness than for investigative credibility or legal acumen.
Yeah. But Ike's B.C. was created in 1952. So it did not have the signatures of the attending physician, and/or witnesses. So it would not pass muster under the Arizona Bill.
All of the States doing this need to be very careful with their "or" provisions. By that I mean that there have to be provisions for Americans who weren't born at a hospital, with an attending physician. If States try to simply decree that everyone born at home, like Ike, or on the side of the road, five miles from the hospital, like a woman I know, cannot run for President, then the Courts will swiftly strike the laws down.
So long as a person in BO's place can still qualify for the ballot -- if his story is true -- the laws should be upheld. Absent judicial activism. And what are the chances of that? (/sarcasm)
If I had to predict right now, from most to least likely, I would say that (1) BO produces long form B.C., with some embarrassing info, and MSM media tears into Republicans for forcing the revelation. (2) BO claims that he had a long form B.C., but that it was destroyed, by court order, after one of his adoptions, then sues. (3) BO just sues.
The strategy is simple: The courts will declare ‘natural born citizen’ to mean entitled to citizenship by birth with no further action required. The courts will hold that the only other citizenship is ‘naturalized’. The original intent and meaning matter no more here than they do for the ‘general welfare’ clause.
Given the number of States that are involved in litigation to nullify ObamaCare (tm), we are close to the number of States necessary to calling a Constitutional Convention. I am of the mind that the day may come when the risk of a Convention sufficiently outweighs the risks of the present relationship between the increasingly dangerous federal government and the States and the people.
That’s not true.
Good.
Assuming (a potentially big "if") the saliant issues are raised and addressed, it would be very helpful to finally get the SCOTUS to weigh in on this debate.
So.
As long as it defines NBC some kind of way, so that someone can sue on it, I'm happier than not.
That's the only way the Supremes will ever actually address what, in their binding view, the Constitution means by "natural born citizen."
I know some smart judges think this issue was settled by Wong Kim Ark, but no one knows that until the Supremes say yea or nay to it. There are cogent arguments that WKA is not nearly on point with the Obama facts.
And this standing issue has been particularly troublesome. While I understand and respect the Court's reluctance to take up a matter that the pols should be addressing, it's not a good thing when the American people's only way to address such a concern is political outrage. That cuts both ways.
Yes, primaries costs states a lot of money. Therefore, the state has an interest in seeing that only candidates eligible to be on the final ballot are on the primary ballot.
Or maybe Obambi will simply run a write-in campaign?
Thus, banking on the U.S. Congress and/or Electoral College to do nothing to establish a transparent procedure for verifying elgibility.
Or maybe Obambi will simply run a write-in campaign?
Thus, banking on the U.S. Congress and/or Electoral College to do nothing to establish a transparent procedure for verifying elgibility.
Yes, indeed!
Orly will find her place in the history books. She is a heroine.
I agree. There must be alternate ways to prove eligibility. But the important thing here is to have some definition of “natural born citizen” that can be ruled upon, eventually, by the Supreme Court.
Of course, if there are lesser issues that get in the way, any challenge might be decided on those.
Hopefully, the SCOTUS would not be so obtuse. They need to address "citizenship by birth" (based on bloodline) compared to "citizenship at birth" (based on operation of law/grant of the Sovereign).
And they need to address how dual citizenship by birth (bloodline) may or may not affect eligibility. Surely if someone had told Ben Franklin in 1788 that the son of a subject of the British Crown could be President of the United States, he would have taken out his horsewhip.
Ducking the AZ eligibility requirement is tantamount to declaring he is ineligible, and would alarm the electorate. It is no solution for Obama.
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