Souter Issues Writ of Certiorari re. Obama Birth Certificate

[ER]

Anybody else been following this? Potentially history in the making, our elected President is being summoned by the United States Supreme Court to prove he's a natural born citizen, and isn't it strange how few US media outlets are covering this incendiary story? After the elections I always try to get behind our future leaders, be a supportive citizen, and learn more about them. In my recent studies on President-Elect Obama, I came across this:

SCOTUS Docket No. 08-570

(Google it, if you're curious.)

Justice David Souter has in effect officially presented President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama with an order to produce his birth certificate no later than December 5, 2008. Should President-Elect Obama fail to do so, then on that date the Court confers on the matter and if four of the nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court so decide, oral arguments will be heard ten days prior to the gathering of the Electoral College, in the ongoing matter of the challenge to our President-Elect's birth certificate. Legal scholars are already buzzing with "what-if" discussion about the November election results being overturned. Can you imagine that?

What a mess, huh? In America our elected leader being called before the Supreme Court over something like this. I wonder why our President-Elect wants to prolong this matter and do this to our nation, when all he has to do is submit an official Hawaiian birth certificate? Puzzling. Very puzzling. I wish he'd just lay such a surely silly charge to rest by doing the easy thing.

My gosh, imagine the mess if our President-Elect wasn't born where he said he was. We live in interesting times, don't we?

[Rev. Powell]

When I look up  Docket No. 08-570 I see the following:

Oct 30 2008 Petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment filed. (Response due December 1, 2008) 
Oct 31 2008 Application (08A391) for an injunction pending disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari, submitted to Justice Souter.
Nov 3 2008 Supplemental brief of applicant Philip J. Berg filed.
Nov 3 2008 Application (08A391) denied by Justice Souter. 
Nov 18 2008 Waiver of right of respondents Federal Election Commission, et al. to respond filed. 

See http://origin.www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/08-570.htm

If this is up to date all it says is the Berg filed the petition, a request for an injunction, and a brief.  His request for an injunction was denied.  It also looks like the Federal Election Commission did not feel the need to respond to Berg's petition, though they could have opposed it. 

If you want to bet, I'll bet the Court ultimately deny Berg's petition for cert.  I'd be willing to bet a fairly large sum.  C'mon, I could use the extra cash for Christmas shopping.

Even in the extremely unlikely event the Court decided to hear the case, they would not address the issue of whether Obama was a citizen or ask him to produce any documents.  They would only decide whether the lower court was correct in dismissing Berg's lawsuit because he has no Constitutional standing to raise the issue.  In the even more unlikely case that they decided Berg can continue his lost cause, the case would be remanded to the District Court for further proceedings.

It appears that some bloggers who know nothing about Constitutional law are misrepresenting this case badly. 

[Captain Tars Tarkas]

This never ceases to amuse me. 

[ER]

No, I'm with you on this, it'll be dismissed, best thing for America, but it does puzzle me why on earth the President-Elect won't just produce his official birth certificate and shut this whole thing up. I don't know what bloggers are saying, probably a lot of misinformation, but the matter is still coming up December 5th, Souter dismissed and then issued the Writ, another case, one sponsored by Alan Keyes having been submitted to Justice Thomas as well, and if four Justices agree the matter needs to be heard, then things get interesting. I dunno, just something in the background out there that caught my notice.

[ER]

No, I triple-checked and it's still on.

This was from 11-25-08, after your dates.

"Supreme Court Of The United States (SCOTUS) Justice David Souter has agreed that a review of the federal lawsuit filed by attorney Phil Berg against Barack Hussein Obama II, et al., which was subsequently dismissed for lack of standing is warranted. SCOTUS Docket No. 08-570 contains the details.

A review of that docket and the Rule 10 of the Supreme Court makes abundantly clear that Justice Souter's granting of a review on the Writ of Certiorari is not a right entitled to citizen Phil Berg, but rather is a matter of judicial discretion based upon a compelling reason. That compelling reason is the Constitutional requirement that "No person except a natural born citizen ... shall be eligible to the office of President..."

Another very salient fact to consider at this time is that, despite all of the pronouncements of the print and broadcast media, Barack Obama is not yet the President-elect of the United States. Barack Obama can only become the President-elect after the Electoral College convenes on 15 DECEMBER 2008 in their respective state capitals around the nation and casts their votes to elect the President and the Vice President. As you can see this election day occurs two weeks after the required response to the Supreme Court granted Writ of Certiorari.

The bottom line is this: the presidential election of 2008 remains an ongoing process, the outcome of which remains undetermined, and all talk about a potential Constitutional crisis in the United States are at least 36 days premature."

In other words, as I understand this, Souter is saying this has nothing to do with Berg.

(Writing this a few minutes after the posting above. My apologies but I forgot---ugh--to snag the link where I copied that info above, so disregard it if you want. Careless of me not to get a link to it. My bad.)

[Rev. Powell]

Here's one page that contains the text you cite.

http://bokertov.typepad.com/btb/2008/11/justice-souter.html

If you read it carefully, you'll see that the evidence the writer cites to support his analysis is the SCOTUS page I linked to.  In other words, this analysis is coming from an Internet blogger who has no idea what the document he's citing actually says.  Souter did not "agree that a review of the federal lawsuit filed by attorney Phil Berg against Barack Hussein Obama II, et al., which was subsequently dismissed for lack of standing is warranted."  He merely docketed a petition and denied the request for an injunction (apparently without anyone submitting a brief in opposition).  The Court will officially deny cert sometime in December.

Souter didn't say the case had nothing to do with Berg, or at least the blogger cites no evidence to that effect.  The writer cites Supreme Court Rule 10 but doesn't understand how to apply it.  He seems to thinks accepting and docketing a petition it is the same as granting a review.  That's like saying submitting a resume is the same thing as getting a job.     

If this thing had any legs, be sure the Republican National Committee and others who stand to gain would be supporting it.     

[ER]

Thanks, Rev. It'll be interesting to see what happens December 5th. 

[Rev. Powell]

Keep in mind that the Suprme Court denies over 90% of the thousands of petitions for a writ of certiorari it receives every year without comment. 

[dvm]

I was following as well all this issue. My guess is that he feels so confident (and he repeated many times) that he doesnt need to present it. Or going to the oral argument he will win because he is very articulate. The aftermath, he took it for granted.

[mvd]

Lets say Obama born in Hawaii from one Kenyan father under British laws and one American mother. It was said they were married kind of 6 months before his birth. And he holds dual nationality. If you read the Dual-Nationality rules, it has one exception. President can not hold Dual Nationality. The Commander In Chief of any country can not hold Dual Citizenship. For Obama to be Natural Born his Kenyan father should be American citizen at the time of his birth. Anyone care to check on his parents marriage? and Inmigration petitions? Would be very interesting to find that Michelle Obama filed a INS petition for her husband Barack Hussein Obama II.

[schmendrik]

Lets say Obama born in Hawaii from one Kenyan father under British laws and one American mother. It was said they were married kind of 6 months before his birth. And he holds dual nationality. If you read the Dual-Nationality rules, it has one exception. President can not hold Dual Nationality. The Commander In Chief of any country can not hold Dual Citizenship. For Obama to be Natural Born his Kenyan father should be American citizen at the time of his birth. Anyone care to check on his parents marriage? and Inmigration petitions? Would be very interesting to find that Michelle Obama filed a INS petition for her husband Barack Hussein Obama II.

Can you quote the law that gives your definition of "Natural Born citizen"?

To be considered a natural born citizen, you should meet the conditions defined in the appropriate law that defines natural born citizen. Period. End of story.

[Rev. Powell]

Lets say Obama born in Hawaii from one Kenyan father under British laws and one American mother. It was said they were married kind of 6 months before his birth. And he holds dual nationality. If you read the Dual-Nationality rules, it has one exception. President can not hold Dual Nationality. The Commander In Chief of any country can not hold Dual Citizenship. For Obama to be Natural Born his Kenyan father should be American citizen at the time of his birth. Anyone care to check on his parents marriage? and Inmigration petitions? Would be very interesting to find that Michelle Obama filed a INS petition for her husband Barack Hussein Obama II.

I don't care to research this confounding area of law right now, but suppose a Presidential candidate held dual nationality (I'm not sure Obama does).  And suppose it's true that the Commander in Chief can't hold dual citizenship (which I'm alos not sure is true).  I still think that would present no problem for our hypothetical candidate, because he could simply renounce his foreign citizenship.  He won't be considered a citizen of another country against his will; the US doesn't even care, interpret or investigate if another country's laws define a US citizen as a citizen of that country as well. 

I'm really baffled by these arguments.  Obama looks like an American, acts like an American, and was elected by the American people as Commander in Chief.  Why do people cling to the hope that some technicality beyond his control will render him ineligible?  Even if the case was succesful, Congress could simply enact emergency legislation that would retroactively define people in Obama's situation as citizens; problem solved (it's not criminal, so it's not an ex post facto law). There's a lot more common sense to the law than people suppose.   

Still no word on the matter from the Supremes, though.  I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Captain Tars Tarkas]

Amazingly enough, this case was declined:  http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/12/08/1702234.aspx#comments

People born in Hawaii are US citizens.  Color me shocked.  SHOCKED!

[ER]

No, I'm with you on this, it'll be dismissed, best thing for America

Ha, gee, I'm shocked, too! I never, EVER would've predicted this! Imagine the infallible US Supreme Court making a politically pragmatic move, as it did when it backed slavery and segregation and American territorial expansions and denying women the right to vote. Who would have seen this coming? 

But y'know, in all seriousness there never would've been a case or an issue with the lunatic fringe had Barack Obama just presented his actual birth certificate in the first place. Trust me, this is going to nag him during his entire four years in office.

I wish the man the best, though.

[ghouck]

Trust me, this is going to nag him during his entire four years in office.

I don't think it will. Before W was in office there was all kinds of talk about him doing coke and people said THAT was going to haunt him. I haven't even heard a JOKE about that since shortly after he took office.