That section of the Constitution says that a President would be picked. I don't remember if it says how.
And I'm half asleep. I gotta go.
We are in uncharted waters here. This is where SCOTUS needs to man up and take charge - it could be one of its finest hours.
Constitutional issues like these come along sparingly. I can only think of 7 in the last 60 years (Brown v. Board of Education, Gideon v. Wainwright, Miranda, Roe v. Wade, United States v. Nixon, Bush v. Gore, and now Berg v. Obama).
The Founding Fathers never envisioned this - honorable men did not do dishonorable things in their time.
In this case, Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 5 is clear:
“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 ...”
The Founding Fathers never envisioned this possible problem - honorable men did not do dishonorable things. They also knew each other pretty well and knew who had been born, when, and where (Chief Justice John Marshall swore in his second cousin, Thomas Jefferson - I assume he knew Jefferson's particulars).
They could not enumerate ALL possible scenarios in the Constitution, so they included Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 18 that empowered Congress to enact laws not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.
A specific law was never enacted by Congress to verify office seeker's eligibility - and thats where we are now ...
SCOTUS has to look to the Constitution during these crises and determine the original intent of the Founding Fathers.
In this case, they CLEARLY DID NOT want a non natural-born citizen as President.
SCOTUS also needs to exercise common sense. Remember, one justice said, “I don't know what pornography is - but I know it when I see it.”
In this case, the facts are pretty clear - you must be a natural born citizen.
The issues to be decided are standing - who has it? I submit that, in this case, the United States has standing via the Constitution and that any citizen can bring it before SCOTUS.
There are also 14th Amendment Equal Protection issues, that the losing contestants were denied due process.
IMHO, SCOTUS should act for the United States and compel production of Obama’s birth certificate.
Assuming Obama is disqualified, The final question is remedy.
I suppose the fairest thing would be to order a new election with a new Democratic candidate, but that would in and of itself present problems. It would take time and cost a lot of money.
It would also likely necessitate Continuity Of Government, with Bush's term extended until the new election. Probably with the proviso that no new laws be enacted in the interim.
However, this scenario is IMPRACTICAL! The next scenario is the least complicated ...and this is where common sense (along with original intent)comes in again ...
It seems to me that, once disqualified, a candidate must be deemed NOT to have participated in the election. YES, 55+ million votes would be disenfranchised - they can go and bitch at Obama.
The original election would then be decided on the basis of the remaining qualified candidates. In this case, McCain would be POTUS.
The final problem would be Biden - would his election as VP be declared valid? I suspect so. Otherwise, his 14th Amendment rights would be denied. However, if his election was declared null and void as part of the Obama/Biden ticket, Palin would be VP.
Now, I know that there is the question of the 20th Amendment - would Biden serve as acting President for a while and how would the next qualified POTUS be chosen.
I think that SCOTUS would probably have skirt this issue and declare that the 20th did NOT apply in this extreme circumstance, due to the actions of an ineligible candidate.
Anyway, that is my 2 cents.