Legal News

Obama Citizenship Case Gets High Court?s Attention

By Dionne Searcey

Is Barack Obama legally qualified to serve as president? A group of plaintiffs, who filed more than a dozen lawsuits challenging Obama’s citizenship at birth, say “no.” The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to meet today to decide whether to hear a case that could determine the outcome of whether Mr. Obama will ever become president.

According to this story in The Washington Times, Justice Clarence Thomas picked up the petition to hear a lawsuit filed by New Jersey attorney Leo Donofrio after it was denied by Justice David H. Souter. Justice Thomas referred it to the full court, which decided to distribute the case for the judges’ conference.

Many of the lawsuits concerning Obama’s citizenship contend he was born on foreign soil. We discussed here how one New Yorker took out full-page ads in Obama’s hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, earlier this week to raise questions about whether Obama’s birth certificate is a fake.

But Donofrio’s case takes a different tack. He concedes that Obama was born in Hawaii, as Obama claims. But Donofrio contends Obama is not a “natural born citizen,” as required by Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution, according to the story, because he was not exclusively a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth. Obama’s father was a citizen of Kenya, formerly British East Africa, so Obama was a British citizen as well.

He explains his legal theory on the Citizen Wells Web site: “My law suit challenges his status as a ‘natural born citizen’ based upon the fact that his Father was a British citizen/subject. Mr. Obama admits, at his own web site, that he was a British citizen/subject at birth. He was also a U.S. citizen ‘at birth.’ He does not have dual nationality now, but the Constitution is concerned with the candidate’s status ‘at birth,’ hence the word ‘born’ in the requirement.

Some legal analysts say the suits have little chance of success because the Supreme Court rarely grants the kind of court orders or stays sought by Donofrio, according to The Washington Times story. At least four of the court’s nine judges must approve before the case is heard.

Update: Our readers are correct. The Supreme Court did not grant certiorari in the case.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 05, 2008 (boomark / email).