Agreed.
It is closed also as a practical matter because there is simply no energy behind the cause. It is closed as a juridical matter because I cannot conceive of a scenario in which the court will not sidestep this matter as a political question or as a question more properly determined by the legislative branch under the Constitution, as you point out.
There is however a faint hope that enough states might pass legislation requiring production of documents cause Obama some difficulty in his quest for reelection. This is however only the faintest of hope.
The matter is effectively dead without dramatic, extrinsic evidence of his birth outside of the states. But this is a wholly different matter and the facts do not warrant denigrating the whole of the "birther" movement as crazy or racist. But even that reservation is a losing argument in the battleground of popular ideas.
The matter is effectively dead without dramatic, extrinsic evidence of his birth outside of the states. But this is a wholly different matter and the facts do not warrant denigrating the whole of the "birther" movement as crazy or racist. But even that reservation is a losing argument in the battleground of popular ideas. I would agree you with you about not denigrating birthers, but the truth of the matter is many of them are verbally abusive toward anyone who disagrees with them on any issue, even when factual refutation is presented.
I have repeatedly seen conservative blog owners pushed to exasperation by birthers, who are not regular posters, swarming onto a blog and making long, rambling, often nonsensical, repetitive and sometimes verbally abusive arguments.
There are also birthers who are regular posters who can't resist going OT on every thread to talk about eligibility, annoying everyone in the process.
On FR, there's been a concerted effort by a group of Freepers to get other members banned for disagreeing with them, even going so far as to keep a "secret" list of those they want banned, continually pinging moderators, and trying to goad those posters, by means of name-calling and ridicule, to retaliate with a bannable post.
The so-called birther "leaders," such as Orly Taitz, also indulge in rude, disrepectful and outrageous accusations against those who disagree, and allow of no dissent on their own blogs.
In short, the birthers, by denigrating others, have made themselves and their so-called "eligibility cause" into pariahs, not the other way around.