In his recent AT
piece,
Paul Kengor looks at Obama's aggregate poll
numbers and concludes that the president may
cruise to reelection in 2012. And Kengor
didn't even factor in the additional votes
Obama may secure with our tax dollars via
entitlements, subsidies, and his
ever-increasing army of government workers.
Neither did he factor in the effects of
widespread voter registration fraud
complements of ACORN-type front groups.
On the other hand, it does appear that much
of Middle America has awakened to the
consequences of electing Obama in 2008. The
Tea Party movement is not going away; in
fact, it is getting stronger. And based on
the amount of fiscal damage the Democrats
have already wrought, it doesn't appear that
the economy will be lifting Obama at
election time.
There is something else that might provide a
little optimism: the eligibility laws of the
states. Presently, at least ten
states
are working on election law eligibility
requirements for candidates who wish to be
placed on their respective 2012 ballots for
the presidency.
Two objectives may be obtained via election
law requirements. The first is to compel
the United States Supreme Court to define
one aspect of presidential eligibility. The
second is to force Mr. Obama to release his
hospital-generated birth certificate.
Getting a definition of "natural born
Citizen"
The Constitution requires "natural born
Citizen" status as a requisite for the U.S.
presidency. But no one can say
authoritatively what the phrase means. The
Supreme Court has had no on-point litigation
from which to provide a definition.
Additionally, in 2008, neither Congress nor
the states had any legislation in place
defining the phrase.
The historic view of the phrase "natural
born Citizen" -- going back to Emmerich de
Vattel's "Law of Nations" -- requires a
birth in the country and (in our context)
U.S. citizen parents at the time of the
candidate's birth. Another view is that
only U.S. citizen parents are required in
order to qualify. And, of course, some
believe that the constitutional language is
merely referring to a birth in the U.S.,
irrespective of parental citizenship.
Defending Obama's birthplace narrative and
secrecy has become a pop-media standby. But
the requirement of citizen parents for
eligibility has traditionally been the
preeminent question when considering whether
one is a "natural born Citizen." Avoiding
conflicting interests, influences,
loyalties, or allegiances is the undisputed
reason for the requirement. A son of a
foreign national taking the reins of the
U.S. presidency is presumably what the
founders wished to prevent.
State legislators should define the phrase
"natural born Citizen" in their election
eligibility codes, requiring U.S. citizen
parents at the time of the candidate's birth
as a requisite to being placed on the
presidential ballot. With such a law in
place, you can rest assured that the issue
would make its way to the Supreme Court --
on a fast track.
It's likely, but no one knows for sure
whether the Court will agree that a
presidential candidate must have been born
to citizen parents to qualify as a "natural
born Citizen." Either way, a ruling on the
issue and a definition of the phrase are
what the country needs.
Forcing Obama into transparency
The other objective that may be achieved via
election law requirements would be the
release of Obama's hospital-generated birth
certificate.
Mr. Obama knows how much money he has spent
defending lawsuits to avoid releasing his
detailed birth certificate showing his
hospital and physician of record. The
dollar amount spent to avoid transparency
must be staggering.
Recently, Hawaii governor and staunch
supporter of Obama Neil Abercrombie
announced that he would end the controversy
by verifying the existence of Obama's birth
certificate. The only problem was that
Abercrombie
discovered
that a detailed birth certificate couldn't
be found in the Hawaii vital records.
Regardless of whether the details of the
president's birth can be documented, Mr.
Obama has a problem. If a detailed birth
certificate does exist, it reasonably may be
inferred to contain candidacy-ending
information. Who believes that Obama would
stubbornly refuse to release his records if
they contained harmless information?
Mr. Obama has been able to legally avoid
releasing information because no eligibility
law defining "natural born Citizen" and
requiring specific proof was in effect at
the time of his election. The states
effectively waived their constitutional
rights in 2008. But apparently, that
mistake will not be repeated.
Additional thoughts for legislators
The key for state legislators drafting
eligibility law for 2012 is specificity.
Merely requiring that each candidate submit
his/her "birth certificate," or that
candidates "prove constitutional
eligibility," as many drafts read, is not
enough.
The document Mr. Obama posted online, his
"Certification of Live Birth," has been
referred to by some as a "birth
certificate." It is therefore possible that
Obama's incomplete certification could pass
a state's eligibility requirements under
generic wording. If the law merely calls
for submission of a "birth certificate" to
the state secretary, a court could rule that
Obama's certification is sufficient.
Legislators drafting eligibility law must be
sure to require each candidate to produce a
hospital-generated birth certificate showing
the hospital and physician of record -- or
at bare minimum, medical records showing the
same. An Obama-type certification should be
acceptable only to document non-hospital
births.
After recommendation, one state lawmaker,
Rep. Leo Berman of Texas, has already
informed me that he will take my advice and
add some extra language to his eligibility
bill for the reasons stated above.
The new eligibility laws of the states could
prove to be quite consequential. Therefore,
the laws need to be drafted with precision
and with focus, for time is of the essence.
If enough carefully written state
eligibility law is passed in time, I believe
either that Obama will be stopped or that we
will find out what he's been hiding. As a
bonus, we might also get a ruling on the
definition of "natural born Citizen."
Monte Kuligowski is an attorney
whose work has been published in several law
journals.