Pennsylvania Attorney Questions The Citizenship Of Barack Obama
By John P. Connolly, The Bulletin
10/17/2008
A Pennsylvania lawyer has filed a suit against Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, alleging that the Illinois senator is not eligible to be sworn in.
Philip J. Berg, a former deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania and former chair of the Montgomery County Democratic State Committee, filed suit against Mr. Obama in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in August.
According to the U.S. Constitution, there are distinct requirements to become president.
"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of president," it reads. "Neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States."
The suit asks whether or not Mr. Obama is indeed a "natural born" citizen.
The first part of Mr. Berg's case focuses on the possibility that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya, where his mother, Ann Dunham, was staying. Mr. Berg alleges that some of Mr. Obama's family members say that he was born in Kenya, not in the U.S. as his campaign says. According to these sources, Ms. Dunham was denied entry to her flight back to Hawaii, since she was too far along in her pregnancy to fly. She allegedly gave birth to Mr. Obama in Kenya, then flew back to Hawaii and registered his birth there.
In cases where both parents are U.S. citizens, their children are citizens, even if they're born overseas. Mr. Berg argues that according to the law in the 1960s, when only one parent is a U.S. citizen, the parent must have spent 10 years in the U.S., five of which were over age 14. Mr. Obama's mother was 18 years old when she gave birth, a few months short of the 19-year-old minimum age to pass on citizenship if giving birth in a foreign country.
Mr. Berg says some people have accused him of dabbling in technicalities.
"I'm not talking technicalities," he said. "I'm talking about the law being the law."
Mr. Berg, who publishes details on the case at his Web site as they occur, wants the Obama campaign to produce Mr. Obama's original birth certificate and documents proving citizenship.
The Obama campaign released a digital scan of Mr. Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate on its Web site in June. It is not the original birth certificate, but a new version produced by the State of Hawaii in 2007. Mr. Berg said he believes the certificate is a forgery.
"They don't have [the original documents]," said Mr. Berg. He is convinced that there is no birth certificate for Mr. Obama issued in 1961. If the defendants do produce them, he has promised to withdraw the case.
The second portion of the case deals with Mr. Obama's childhood in Indonesia. Ms. Dunham married an Indonesian businessman named Lolo Soetoro, taking Mr. Obama to Indonesia for several years. Mr. Berg says that Mr. Obama had to have been a citizen in Indonesia while he was there, and in consequence, he would be either a naturalized U.S. citizen or an illegal immigrant.
"In the '60s, Indonesia was at war, and they didn't allow dual citizenship," said Mr. Berg. "Mr. Obama admits to going to school there, something he would only have been able to do if he were adopted or considered a natural born citizen of Indonesia."
He was known as Barry Soetoro while in Indonesia. He returned to the U.S. and stayed with his grandparents at age 10.
Mr. Obama's representatives have filed for dismissal, arguing that Mr. Berg has no standing to file the suit.
"In this case, Mr. Berg fails to allege any concrete, specific injury in fact to himself," reads the request for dismissal. "He alleges that if Sen. Obama is elected as president and then discovered to be ineligible, 'plaintiff as well as other Democratic Americans will suffer Irreparable Harm including ... disenfranchisement of large numbers of citizens, being members of the Democratic Party, who would have been deprived of the ability to choose a nominee of their liking.' It is well-established, however, that a voter's loss of the ability to vote for a candidate 'of their liking' does not confer standing because the actual injury is not to the voter but to the candidate."
The case now waits on the ruling of Judge R. Barclay Surrick, who was appointed to the Third Circuit by President Bill Clinton in April 2000.
"I'm a lifelong Democrat, and I'm doing this to enforce the Constitution," said Mr. Berg. He said it was a crime for the Democratic Party to protect Mr. Obama over protecting the Constitution. "Barack Obama taught Constitutional law, he knows his status, and he knows that he's not eligible. [Calif. Gov. Arnold] Schwarzenegger wants to run for president, he says, 'Go change the constitution.' Barack Obama wants to run for president, he'll just ignore the Constitution."
"This is the first time in the history of our government that an unqualified person has run for the office of president," said Mr. Berg.
John P. Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@thebulletin.us
END
Where is the media on this? AWOL
The Media's behavior is shameful. What about the allegations that Obama used cocaine and engaged in consensual gay sex with Larry Sinclair in November of 1999? Will the MSM stop taking sides in the election and do their jobs? Will they investigate Mr. Sinclair's allegations? Will they dig into Obama’s past as hard as they have jumped on Sarah Palin? Will they look deeply into Obama's relationships with William Ayers, Rev. Wright, Tony Rezko, Acorn, and all the rest? Will they look into the Democratic involvement in Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac failures? Will they call Sen. Obama to task for his possible violations of the Logan Act in
