Suit contesting Barack Obama's citizenship heads to U.S. Supreme Court Friday

[sabra]

Source: Chicago Trib

Justices will decide whether to consider the case


The U.S. Supreme Court will consider Friday whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, a continuation of a New Jersey case embraced by some opponents of Obama's election.

The meeting of justices will coincide with a vigil by the filer's supporters in Washington on the steps of the nation's highest court.

The suit originally sought to stay the election, and was filed on behalf of Leo Donofrio against New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells.

Legal experts say the appeal has little chance of succeeding, despite appearing on the court's schedule. Legal records show it is only the tip of an iceberg of nationwide efforts seeking to derail Obama's election over accusations that he either wasn't born a U.S. citizen or that he later renounced his citizenship in Indonesia.

The Obama campaign has maintained that he was born in Hawaii, has an authentic birth certificate, and is a "natural-born" U.S. citizen. Hawaiian officials agree.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-obama-birth-certificatedec04,0,664988.story

[Richard D]

1. And how much taxpayer dollars . . .

. . . is being wasted on this nonsense?

[apnu]

31. Not nearly as much as the Iraq War!

Hopefully the coming smack down by the SCOUTS (by choosing not to hear the case and ending this stupidly) will send a warning bell to these sore losers.



(edited for spelling)

[liberalmuse]

2. What a waste of our court system.

These people are nuts. I suppose after they hear this case and rule against it, they can throw all the other cases out one by one.

[Winterblues]

29. I wouldn't be so sure this group of thugs will rule against this..

This is not a fair and impartial court...They selected Bush* against all Legal Precident...They can do whatever they wish and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do or say about it...

[fjc]

32. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but

if his mother was a citizen when he was born, does that not mean he is a citizen? I mean, does he have to be born on US soil if his mother is a citizen?

[treestar]

35. You can pass your citizenship on to your children born abroad

if you have enough residence in the U.S. when old enough to have a sense of being here. But apparently it has to be by the law of the time you were born - in 1961 they had to have 5 years residence in the U.S. past the age of 14. Obama's mother was 18 when he was born, so if she had been abroad when he was born, she couldn't pass her citizenship on.

However, he was born in the U.S., so that doesn't matter and that's why these morans are claiming he was born in Kenya - it's their only hope.

[endarkenment]

3. Thomas should be impeached for letting this into the court.

He is clearly incompetent.

[Merlot]

9. More biased than incompetent.

Agreed on hte impeaching - can that be done to a SCJ?

[awoke_in_2003]

13. yes, it can...

presidents and justices are removed by impeachment, senators and reps are removed by their respective bodies

[damntexdem]

21. Actually, I don't think that it has ever been decided whether senators and reps can be impeached.

Are they 'civil officials' of the U.S.?

One senator was impeached but was ruled by the Senate to not be subject to impeachment because he had already been expelled from the Senate -- or possibly because sens and reps are not subject to impeachment.

In any case, the houses of Congress CAN expel their own members.

[endarkenment]

17. Either way it a corrupt act.

[Nevernose]

37. Yes,it's been done before (almost)

One was impeached by the House but found not guilty by the Senate, and others resigned before they could be impeached.

of course, practically speaking, "Impeachment is off the table..."

[scytherius]

18. Actually, this isn't that unusual (though i agree Thomas is incompetent)

It is normal for this to be considered for Cert. Will take 4 judges to grant it. But the ONLY issue that would be considered if they did grant it would be the issue of standing NOT the BC. So if they do grant Cert, they will hear arguments and issue a ruling next year. If they overturn the Circuit Court then it goes all the way back to the District Court for a trial on the merits (i.e. the BC issue). That would take years to get through the courts.

And although there is no doubt Thomas is an idiot, this particular move is a standard one. Any of the judges would have put it on for a Cert vote.

In short, this is a pretty meaningless stunt by a group of "flat earthers".

[onenote]

24. he actually was following standard supreme court practice

I have no use for Thomas, but in this instance,he followed standard SCOTUS practice. Under the SCOTUS rules, an application that is submitted to, and denied by, a single Justice can then be re-submitted to another Justice (and so on and so on). It is standard practice when a justice receives a re-submitted application for that Justice not to rule on it either way, but rather to submit it to the full court for resolution. That's exactly what happened here.

If you don't believe me, here is what the author of the leading treatise on Supreme Court practice has written:

"If the assigned Justice denies an application, then the application can be re-submitted to any other Justice...under modern practice, renewed applications usually are submitted to the entire Court for resolution."
http://www.appellate.net/docketreports/In_Chambers_Opinions_v2_scdr3_2004.pdf

[cali]

28. there is nothing unusual in what Thomas did.

Can't stand the man, but this is fairly routine.

[Callalily]

4. Just have to shake

my head on this one. What utter nonsense.

[arcadian]

5. And it's already begun.

I expect the Republicans will have impeachment proceedings on the table by 2011.

[stubtoe]

6. These sore losers need to suck it up and get over it.

(I waited 8 long years to say that)

[Merlot]

7. "tip of the iceberg?" how about tip of the icecube?

There are more people that voted for Obama than not.

I like the part about renouncing his citizenship while in Indonesia - wasn't he in the 2nd grade or something?

If the SC does the right thing and rules on it, then it is over and these wack jobs will have lost. Then they can spend the next four years claiming the prez is illetitimate, just like we did with bushco. Except in bushco's case, it was legitimate.

Hey wing nuts, feel our pain!

[Mike Daniels]

27. I think the SC should act on it if for no other reason just to put this to bed.

No-one who ran against Obama in the primary or general election ( to the best of my knowledge )once tossed this crock of crap out and I would think if any of them thought it valid they would have used it.

However, despite this you have every FReep with t0o much time on their hands trying to imagine themselves as the next Buckhead who's going to bring down the Obama presidency before it ever gets started.

Let the Supreme Court sound off on this and either refuse to take it up or flat out toss it out. Once the SC rules on this I can't imagine any court in the US would even consider hearing a variation of the case and the Freeps can go back to either stalking Palin and Coulter or finding some way to be procductive members of society.

[Igel]

33. Yeah, he was in grade school.

Doesn't matter. It's only been in the last couple of decades that you could accept citizenship in another country and retain US citizenship. It used to be that by taking another citizenship you revoked your US citizenship.

I have to assume that also worked if parents applied for their kids. It was different, IIRC, if you were born into multiple citizenships. I had a housemate as an undergrad who was Nicaraguan/American/El Salvadoran, and his live-in girlfriend was Canadian/American/Colombian. I always wondered how many of those citizenships would automatically pass down to their kids (and if they'd be able to afford all the passport renewal fees).

[FriendlyReminder]

8. I think this is really juicy if we play it right.

Let these lunatics keep doing what they are doing and they will eventually be shown to be the fools that they are. I think it would be absolutely hilarious to have all this crap come to a crescendo only to show what everyone knows to be valid documentation. Talk about to fools being totally embarrassed and deflated. That would be the ultimate "chess" move!!!

[Arctic Dave]

20. Agree. Let them waste their time, money and their reputations on this.

I will laugh all the way to 2016.

[still_one]

10. The election can't be redone. Biden would become the President if Obama were to step down

Enough of these hate filled lawsuits, it is time to charge the accusers of frivilous lawsuits, and not only throw it out of court, but fine them

[HopeHoops]

11. Geeze, McCain was born on a base in Panama - and yes, that's legal.

[MineralMan]

12. What silliness...

The SCOTUS will dump this request summarily tomorrow.

The winger nutcases, however, will continue to whine on this subject throughout Obama's term as President. It will pop up again, and again, on Free Republic and in Whirled Nuts Daily. And it will be ignored as nutcase conspiracy theory by almost everyone.

And the marginalization of the nutcase right will continue. And so it goes...

[2Design]

14. is this one of the frivolous lawsuits the rw are against - they need to go after these idiots n/t

[scarface2004]

15. if all else fails, get a plump intern

to plump the prez!

[Auggie]

16. Army deploys combat unit in US for possible civil unrest:

Thread from several months ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4164631

Makes one wonder...

[bluestateguy]

19. I'm really trying my very best to ignore this case

I hope I can continue to do so.

[carnie_sf]

22. We should be hitting them back

with their own frivolous lawsuits bs

[greyghost]

23. After the campaign McSame ran?

McCain's campaign would have been all over this if they thought that Obama's citizenship was in question. The reason they weren't was because it isn't.

[Submariner]

25. Sissy Clarence is just pissed that Barack called him the worst SC justice

on the Court. It was during one of the debates, or an interview some months back. So, coke can clarence is just venting and making himself look more stupid.

Now we have to look forward to 8 years of Limpballs, Insanity, and the freeptards whining about the Muslim prez whose a foreigner.

[onenote]

26. he may be pissed at Obama and he may be an ass, but he's following scotus practice

see post number 24

[bif]

30. Just like they said to us in 2000, "Move on!"

Get over it. You lost. What a bunch of crybabies.

[hack89]

34. Its Fitzmas over at FR

what a riot!

[classysassy]

36. The wingnuts

last stand.

[Nevernose]

38. Memorialized in a statue of The Moran

With a little brass placard reading:

Give us your mulleted, your jingoistic, your illiterate...
(I don't really want to write the rest of the poem)