Below The Beltway

A Judge in California has shot down another lawsuit contesting President Obama’s eligibility to hold office:

On March 13, California Superior Court Judge Michael Kenney tentatively ruled against Alan Keyes, in the lawsuit concerning whether President Barack Obama meets the constitutional qualifications to be president, and whether the California Secretary of State should have put him on the ballot. The case is Keyes v Bowen, 34-2008-8000096-CU-WM-GDS. The 6-page opinion seems to strengthen the rights of political parties to place anyone they wish on the November ballot, regardless of that candidate’s qualifications.

The decision says, “Defendants contend that Election Code sec. 6901 requires the Secretary of State to place on the ballot the names of the candidates submitted to her by a recognized political party and that she has no discretion to override the party’s selection. The Court finds that the First Amended Petition fails to state a cause of action against the Secretary of State…Federal law establishes the exclusive means for challenges to the qualifications of the President and Vice President. That procedure is for objections to be presented before the U.S. Congress pursuant to 3 U.S.C. section 15.”

This is getting to be like shooting fish in a barrel.

The text of the decision can be found here.

In other news, a Republican Congressman has introduced a bill that would require candidates for President to prove their eligibility for office:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Rep. Bill Posey, R-Florida, introduced legislation this week requiring candidates to produce a birth certificate to be eligible to run in future presidential elections, triggering a sharp reaction from Democrats who accused him of “questioning President Obama’s citizenship.”

Posey submitted a bill with no fanfare Thursday that instructs the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to be amended to add the birth certificate requirement. The Constitution requires that a president or a vice president be “a natural born citizen.”

During the presidential campaign, some people — mostly Republicans — questioned whether Obama, who was born in Hawaii, was a U.S. citizen. Obama’s mother was a U.S. citizen, while his father was from Kenya.

Obama produced a certified copy of his birth certificate from the Hawaii Department of Health, but critics argued that it was a fake or had been altered. The Supreme Court has turned down several requests that it hear challenges to the president’s citizenship.

Of course, as Dr. Conspiracy notes, the Obama Birth Truthers don’t even really care about the birth certificate anymore:

[L]et us assume by some miracle of miracles Birth Certificate Mark II rather than creating more cries of forgery or official misconduct miraculously convinced the whole world that Barack Obama was really born in Hawaii; does it solve the eligibility question?

No, it does not. First there is the whole lost citizenship in Indonesia/Travel ban to Pakistan thing. False, but pervasive. That and the Selective Service registration argument.

Further, students of Obama Conspiracy Theories know that birther arguments are falling out of favor among the nObamas, who today only want to talk about redefining “natural born citizen” because Obama’s father was a British citizen.

So you see, nothing will be resolved by releasing a birth certificate, or anything else. Not a single lawsuit will be satisfied by a birth certificate.

Much like the black helicopter crowd back in the `90’s, these people have a world view that is immune from being debunked by actual evidence.