Interesting Distraction

By Tom Rhodes, 1/4/2012

In Georgia, a state law requires “every candidate for federal” office who is certified by the state executive committees of a political party or who files a notice of candidacy “shall meet the constitutional and statutory qualifications for holding the office being sought.”

Obama’s attorney, Michael Jablonski, had argued that the requirements didn’t apply to candidates for a presidential primary, but Judge Michael W. Malihi of the Georgia state Office of State Administrative Hearings, ruled that “Statutory provisions must be read as they are written, and this court finds that the cases cited by [Obama] are not controlling. When the court construes a constitutional or statutory provision, the ‘first step … is to examine the plain statutory language,” the judge wrote. “Section 21-2-1(a) states that ‘every candidate for federal and state office’ must meet the qualifications for holding that particular office, and this court has seen no case law limiting this provision, nor found any language that contains an exception for the office of president or stating that the provision does not apply to the presidential preference primary.”

So let’s take Obama at his word, and we accept his birth certificate, and the fact he was born in Hawaii, his mom was a US Citizen, and his father wasn’t. Those facts are not in dispute. Now we must consider the fact that the constitution says that to be eligible to be president one must be a “natural born citizen.”

Again nobody is arguing that point, but exactly how is a “natural born citizen” defined?

The Constitution doesn’t define “natural born citizen” but lucky for us the US Supreme court did rule on that. In Minor v. Happersett, the U.S. Supreme Court opinion defines “natural-born citizen.” To be exact the SCOTUS Opinion states:

The Constitution does not in words say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners.

The SCOTUS is clear, where you’re born doesn’t make you a natural born citizen, but the citizenship of your parents does. An undisputeded fact is that both of Obama’s parents were not citizens at the time of his birth in Hawaii. That would mean that by definition Obama cannot be considered a “natural-born citizen.”

The State of Georgia, is allowing this to proceed, and has dismissed Obama’s attorney’s arguments that Georgia law doesn’t apply. Not all states have election law authorizing any state officials to screen candidate selections from political parties, but in some states it is the law, not the political parties that determine which candidates appear on ballots. Malihi’s ruling said: “The court finds that defendant is a candidate for federal office who has been certified by the state executive committee of a political party, and therefore must, under Code Section 21-2-5, meet the constitutional and statutory qualifications for holding the office being sought.”

Looks like Obama may not be on the ballot in all 50 states. This is an interesting distraction. Taking Obama at his word, and accepting his birth certificate at face value, but using the clear language of Supreme Court precedent will result in the fact that by law Obama may not be a “natural-born citizen.”

The question is are we a country governed by law or by the dictates of some ruling elite?