A Federal Judge in Pennsylvania has, not surprisingly, dismissed a lawsuit attempting to remove Barack Obama from the ballot on the ground that he is not a natural born citizen:
A federal judge in Philadelphia last night threw out a complaint by a Montgomery County lawyer who claimed that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was not qualified to be president and that his name should be removed from the Nov. 4 ballot.
Philip J. Berg alleged in a complaint filed in federal district court on Aug. 21 against Obama, the Democratic National Committee and the Federal Election Commission, that Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya.
Berg claimed that the Democratic presidential standardbearer is not even an American citizen but a citizen of Indonesia and therefore ineligible to be president.
He alleged that if Obama was permitted to run for president and subsequently found to be ineligible, he and other voters would be disenfranchised.
(…)
In a 34-page memorandum and opinion, the judge said Berg’s allegations of harm were “too vague and too attenuated” to confer standing on him or any other voters.
Surrick ruled that Berg’s attempts to use certain laws to gain standing to pursue his claim that Obama was not a natural-born citizen were “frivolous and not worthy of discussion.”
The judge also said the harm Berg alleged did “not constitute an injury in fact” and Berg’s arguments to the contrary “ventured into the unreasonable.”
Again, this isn’t a surprise. Berg’s claims had no legal or factual merit.
Hopefully, there will be a Rule 11 motion coming in the mail to him soon.
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October 26th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Obama hasn’t yet proved his citizenship, …only had a Clinton-Appointed judge toss out the case. If elected, this issue may be a real future problem for Obama, he could face impeachment. It is a constitutional requirement to be a natural born citizen. Does the constitution matter anymore???
October 26th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Lane,
His citizenship has been proven. There is a birth certificate, a certified copy of a Certificate of Live Birth, and a corroborating birth announcement in Honolulu’s paper of record. All listing the birth of a male child named Barack Obama on August 4, 1961.
That’s all the evidence necessary unless you’re a member of the tinfoil hat crowd.
October 26th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Number one, I think BO is a citizen, and I’m no consipiracy theorist. Number two, I’ve only read the above synopsis, not the 34 page decision of the judge. HOWEVER, the three reasons listed by the judge in the short article would apply if BO had been born at the North Pole: 1. “vague allegations of harm”. 2. the use of certain laws to “gain standing” 3. not an injury “in fact”. I wonder if laws mean anything anymore…..I’m reminded of the decision to let the 2 major parties on the ballot in Texas even though they missed the filing deadline…..or how the fact that Cheney and Bush were both Texans was ignored when considering their ticket. Hmmmmmmm.
October 26th, 2008 at 11:12 am
1. I don’t KNOW if Obama is a citizen; I will believe Obama is a natural born citizen when he submits the ORIGINAL documents for professional examination–not just post a potentially photo-shopped document on a webpage.
2. Obama could cause America plenty of harm with his radical policies. He can not hold certain government jobs because he can’t pass the background check because of his past associations, i.e.: Ayers, Wright. If he were a govt. employee, he couldn’t get a security clearance for the same reason; yet as President, he’ll have access to things he should never be allowed to see.
3. Cheney was born in Nebraska and grew up in Wyoming, he only resided in Tx for awhile.
October 26th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Lane,
The documents are there for any sane, rational person to look at.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Doug,
What’s so wrong about Obama producing the original documents so sane rational people can examine them? It is neither sane nor rational for Obama to hide them, and even less so for you to blindly march along like a helpless sheep, believing everything you read on the internet. Just “thinking” or “believing” that Obama is a legitimate citizen is not enough, show the proof and the issue is resolved. Do you just guess at how much money is in your checking account, or verify it by reading a legitimate bank statement? Life is hard Doug, yours will be even harder because you’re so naive.
October 28th, 2008 at 5:33 am
Lane,
You do realize that Obama never would have gotten an American passport if he wasn’t born in Hawaii, don’t you ?
That fact alone should clue the tinfoil hat crowd into the probability that their fantasies are just that, fantasies.
Obama has produced a certified copy of his birth from the appropriate authority in Hawaii. That is all he needs to do.
October 29th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
There is a difference from what you need to produce to get a passport and what you need to be President to prove you are a natural born citizen. Obama went to Hawaii to have his original vault birth certificate sealed. Why would he do that? What not spend the $12.00 and produce the vault copy as proof of his eligibility for the Presidency.
Instead of producing the vault or long version of his birth certificate, he produced the short form version.
There are now multiple suits being filed in various states over this issue. Obama needs to produce the documents and end this speculation.Here are some of the reasons why:
http://www.faxts.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=364:dr-edwin-vieira&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=99
Obama is doing everything he can to protect production of his long version of the birth certificate. If there is embarrassing information on it he should ask the Senate to form a committee and vet the information and decide if he meets the criteria. Something needs to be done to answer this very important question. It is not going away.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Obama is the President Elect now. Why don’t you folks stop with the sour grapes and move on. There are much better issues in the world than a birth certificate, especially when one has already been procuded. No one likes a sore loser.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:01 pm
[...] though, two of those cases, including one that was dismissed by a Pennsylvania Federal District Court Judge right before Election Day, are before the Supreme Court: When the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court meet on Dec. 5th, in [...]
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
[...] even though the substance of their arguments are without any more for the reasons I discussed here, here, here, and here. Related PostsFederal Judge Tosses Obama Citizenship [...]