Let me first qualify my position by stating that I am not a birther. (I used to be until I reviewed all of the facts in the public domain.) I do believe there is reason to question Obama’s status due to his father’s citizenship.
However, Hawaii has not confirmed that the COLB posted online by the Obama campaign (or FightTheSmears or FactCheck) is legitimate or even issued by the State of Hawaii. In fact, they have declined to do so.
They have made official statements regarding their review of the vital records currently on file with the Hawaii Department of Health. However, (to my knowledge) those statements have not been submitted as evidence in any eligibility lawsuit thus far. Those statements should be taken at face value, nothing more, because the Attorney General of Hawaii and the Director of Health do not have the authority to declare that Obama is a natural born citizen. They can legally state only that their records reflect that Obama was born in Hawaii. If their statements were submitted as evidence in a lawsuit, I’m sure the court would grant them sufficient weight under the law.
Let me first qualify my position by stating that I am not a birther. (I used to be until I reviewed all of the facts in the public domain.) I do believe there is reason to question Obama’s status due to his father’s citizenship.
However, Hawaii has not confirmed that the COLB posted online by the Obama campaign (or FightTheSmears or FactCheck) is legitimate or even issued by the State of Hawaii. In fact, they have declined to do so.
They have made official statements regarding their review of the vital records currently on file with the Hawaii Department of Health. However, (to my knowledge) those statements have not been submitted as evidence in any eligibility lawsuit thus far. Those statements should be taken at face value, nothing more, because the Attorney General of Hawaii and the Director of Health do not have the authority to declare that Obama is a natural born citizen. They can legally state only that their records reflect that Obama was born in Hawaii. If their statements were submitted as evidence in a lawsuit, I’m sure the court would grant them sufficient weight under the law.
Thus far I have counted 62 civil adjudications in various lawsuits challenging Obama’s eligibility. No plaintiff has prevailed in any of them including seven denials of granting Writs of Certiorari (agreeing to hear a case before the full court) at the US Supreme Court.
Since we do not know what statements or documents defense attorneys have presented to courts in the vast majority of these cases, it is impossible to know if justices and judges have taken the Hawaii Health Department’s public statements into consideration in dismissing and denying plaintiffs’ claims.
In one bizarre “politics make strange bedfellows” lawsuit, Ankeny et. al. v The Governor of Indiana, the Republican Attorney General of Indiana Greg Zoeller defended Obama and McCain against claims that neither one of them qualified under Article 2 Section 1, Clause 4. In Ankeny et. al. the case against Obama was made on the basis of his father not being an American citizen. Both the original trial judge and the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that both McCain and Obama qualify as Natural Born Citizens.
http://www.in.gov/judiciary/opinions/pdf/11120903.ebb.pdf
To date there has been no appeal of the Indiana Court of Appeals’ decision to a higher court.