There is no basis in law for a suit, before the Supreme Court or any other court, to make someone "prove" something like this.
Obama has not been chosen by the Electoral College as President-Elect. Until he is, his citizenship and birth status is of no legal significance whatsoever.
“Obama has not been chosen by the Electoral College as President-Elect. Until he is, his citizenship and birth status is of no legal significance whatsoever.”
Good point.
How about AFTER he has been chosen as President-Elect?
- John
maybe in theory, but if you use your imagination I bet you can come up with several possible valid legal challenges that could be made long before the electoral college votes are counted.
For example, right now Obama gets Secret Service protection paid for by the taxpayers. President Bush, or the head of the Treasury Dept., could attempt to subpeona the birth certificate from Obama to prove he's a legal presidential candidate deserving of the protection.
Also, state election officials would have the right (I think) to have Obama prove his eligibility before they allowed his name on the ballot in their state.
I'm not saying that Obama coudn't fight these attempts and even win, but I think there are some valid legal questions to consider.
Why wouldn’t proof of eligibility be a requirement to get on a ballot? So that means, technically, the GOP could knowingly run Arnold S. and then force the democrats to wait until after the election to sue?
Obviously that is a bad example because everyone knows Arnold wasn’t born in the US. But take Bobby Jindal. Let’s assume a couple of people knew he wasn’t born in the USA, but moved here when he was one...and for some reason the public didn’t know etc etc. There is no mechanism to “apply” to run for President? So unless someone bothers to ask, after the fact, there is no mechanism to deal with such a scenario?
Interesting.