U.S. Supreme Court confers on Obama eligibility/Is president a 'natural-born citizen' as Constitution requires?

[Sandra]

BORN IN THE
USA?

U.S. Supreme Court confers on Obama eligibility

Is president a 'natural-born citizen' as Constitution requires?

Posted: November 23, 2010
9:45 pm Eastern

By Brian Fitzpatrick
© 2010 WorldNetDaily






WASHINGTON – Is this the case that will break the
presidential eligibility question wide open?

The Supreme Court conferred today on whether arguments should be heard on
the merits of Kerchner v. Obama, a case challenging whether President
Barack Obama is qualified to serve as president because he may not be a
"natural-born citizen" as required by Article II, Section 1,
Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution.

Unlike other eligibility cases that have reached the Supreme Court,
Kerchner vs. Obama focuses on the "Vattel theory," which argues
that the writers of the Constitution believed the term "natural-born
citizen" to mean a person born in the United States to parents who
were both American citizens.

"This case is unprecedented," said Mario Apuzzo, the attorney
bringing the suit. "I believe we presented an ironclad case. We've
shown standing, and we've shown the importance of the issue for the
Supreme Court. There's nothing standing in their way to grant us a writ
of certiorari."

If the Supreme Court decides to grant the "writ of certiorari,"
it may direct a federal trial court in New Jersey to hear the merits of
the case, or it may choose to hear the merits itself. The court's
decision on the writ could be announced as early as Wednesday.


If any court hears the merits of the case, Apuzzo says it will mark the
"death knell" for Obama's legitimacy.

"Given my research of what a natural-born citizen is, he cannot be a
natural-born citizen so it's a death knell to his legitimacy. What
happens on a practical level, how our political institutions would work
that out, is something else," Apuzzo told WND.


Mario Apuzzo

Apuzzo observed it is "undisputed fact" that Obama's father was
a British subject.

A hearing on the merits "is also a death knell because it would
allow discovery so we would be able to ask him for his birth certificate,
and we don't know what that would show," according to Apuzzo.
"We might not even get to the question of defining 'natural-born
citizen.' If he was not born in the U.S., he'd be undocumented, because
he's never been naturalized. We don't even know what his citizenship
status is. Hawaii has said they have his records, but that's hearsay. We
have not seen the root documents."

Another attorney who has brought Obama eligibility cases to the Supreme
Court, Philip Berg, agrees that discovery would sink Obama's presidency.


"If one court had guts enough to deal with this and allow discovery,
Obama would be out of office," Berg told WND. "We would ask for
a lift of Obama's ban on all of his documents. The last official report
said Obama has spent $1.6 million in legal fees [keeping his papers
secret], and the total is probably over $2 million now. You don't spend
that kind of money unless there's something to hide, and I believe the
reason he's hiding this is because he was not born in the United
States."

"The Supreme Court has never decided to hear the merits of an
eligibility case," Berg added. "If the Supreme Court would
decide to hear a case, Obama would be out of office instantly. If
Congress decided to hear a case, Obama would be out of office."


"They're taking a different approach, arguing that both parents must
be citizens," Berg noted.

Apuzzo is arguing the "Vattel theory," which asserts that the
term "natural-born citizen" as used in the Constitution was
defined by French writer Emer de Vattel. Vattel, whose work, "The
Law of Nations," was widely known and respected by the founding
fathers, used the term to mean an individual born of two citizens.


According to Apuzzo, Congress and the courts have addressed the question
of who can be an American citizen, for example regarding former slaves,
Asian immigrants, and American Indians. However, the term
"natural-born citizen" has never been altered.

"The courts and Congress have never changed the definition,"
said Apuzzo. "The founding fathers understood that the
commander-in-chief of the armed forces needed to have two American
citizens as parents so that American values would be imparted to
him."

Apuzzo said the Supreme Court had clearly accepted Vattel's definition of
"natural-born citizen" in "dicta," or statements made
in opinions on cases addressing other matters. He cited Supreme Court
Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in the 1814 "Venus" case,
in which Marshall

endorses Vattel's definition.

Apuzzo
also
cites the writings of founding father David Ramsay, an influential
South Carolina physician and historian who used similar language to
Vattel.

Previous cases challenging Obama's eligibility have all been rejected on
technical grounds. Numerous courts have decided that the plaintiffs do
not have "standing" to bring a suit against Obama because they
have failed to prove they are directly injured by his occupation of the
Oval Office.

"To me that's false," said Berg. "The 10th Amendment
refers to 'we the people.' If the people can't challenge the president's
constitutionality, that would be ridiculous."

"My clients have a right to protection from an illegitimately
sitting president," said Apuzzo. "Every decision he makes
affects the life, property, and welfare of my clients."

Apuzzo said the founding fathers had good reason to require the president
to be a natural-born citizen.

"They were making sure the President had the values from being
reared from a child in the American system, and thereby would preserve
everybody's life, liberty and property in the process.

"They made that decision, so my clients have every right to expect
the president to be a natural-born citizen. It goes to all your basic
rights, every right that is inalienable. The president has to be a
natural-born citizen."



http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=232073

Get the free,
in-depth special report on eligibility that could bring an end to Obama's
presidency