Natural Born Conundrum

By now the Supreme Court of the Unites States (SCOTUS) has conferred to consider whether to hear a growing number of claims that Barack Obama is not constitutionally eligible to become President. The Constitution says, "No Person except a natural born Citizen ... shall be eligible to the Office of President." The only exception is those who were alive when the Constitution was signed.

There are more than a few opinions on this issue, partly because the courts have apparently never defined "natural born Citizen." For weeks the consensus among the media and various state and federal courts was that this claim didn't pass the kookiness sniff test.

The other end of the spectrum says something stinks. Some say Obama knowingly defrauded the public and was never even eligible for the Senate seat he recently resigned. The suit faults various state and federal officials for neglecting their duty to confirm candidates' eligibility.
One case, Berg v. Obama, questions Obama's birthplace. Obama says he was born in Hawaii. The suit says Kenya. If born in Kenya, Obama does not meet the constitutional requirements for President.

Obama's campaign has offered a scanned image of a short-form "certification of live birth" from Hawaii. This form does not name the attending doctor or hospital. Detractors say it is inadequate documentation for a passport or even a driver's license, much less the Presidency. Some suggest that the certification image itself is a forgery, demanding that only an original "vault" copy of a birth certificate should be considered.

Thus far, all witnesses on record, including Obama's paternal grandmother and Ambassador Peter Ogego of Kenya have asserted that Obama was born in Kenya. Obama refuses to provide his original birth certificate and has hired attorneys to have his birth, medical, and scholastic records sealed. Maybe Obama has concealed these records for good cause.
Berg, a life-long Democrat, claims that, even if Obama were born in Hawaii, he lost his US citizenship when he was adopted by his Indonesian step-father. His suit further asserts that Obama must have visited Pakistan in 1981 on an Indonesian passport, since Pakistan did not allow US citizens into the country at that time. If true, this indicates a possible dual citizenship problem for Obama.

Another case, Donofrio v. Wells, claims that Obama could not qualify as President even if he were born on the Washington Mall. Obama's father was a native of Kenya, a British colony at the time of Obamas' birth. Even Obama's camp agrees that Obama held dual citizenship at birth. If SCOTUS agrees to hear the case, they must decide whether "natural born Citizen" allows for dual citizenship. Donofrio further argues that a military base is not US soil but merely a US jurisdiction, meaning that McCain, born on a US military base in Panama, is also ineligible.
The easiest but perhaps worst outcome might be for SCOTUS to refuse this case since the issue is unlikely to just fade away. Our country could use some unity right now, especially a break from the "not my President" undercurrent of resentment that has marked these past eight years.

I hope and expect that SCOTUS will hear the case and resolve it based on the facts, giving no consideration for any potential social or political fallout and I'm confident that we citizens can handle that. SCOTUS ruled boldly when they decided that 100 years of segregation after the Civil War had been quite enough. That is the kind of courage and faith in American's sense of justice that we need right now.