All that Hawaiian officials can do is what Hawaiian law permits. What the law says is that “the department of health, upon request, shall furnish ... a verification of the existence of a certificate and any other information that the applicant provides to be verified relating to the vital event that pertains to the certificate.”
Regardless of the fact that Bennett requested “a true and accurate representation of the original record in your files,” letters of verification under Hawaiian law do not purport to be accurate representations of records. Rather, they are verifications of the information contained in the records, and that’s just what the letter does.
And, because it is a self-authenticating document, unless it is successfully rebutted it establishes the truth of the information it contains.
“any other information that the applicant provides”
Twenty Questions
A BC attested “a complete and true copy” would show “late” or “amended” on it. The reason this has not been provided is that any amendment(s) would not stand scrutiny.
HRS §338-17 Late or altered certificate as evidence. The probative value of a “late” or “altered” certificate shall be determined by the judicial or administrative body or official before whom the certificate is offered as evidence.
Nowhere did Onaka say that he was verifying the truth of the information contained on any birth certificate. ALL he verified in a clear sentence was that a birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama, II, exists.
If he was unable to comment on Bennett’s request for verification that the White House image was a “true and accurate representation of the original record on file” then he should not have said anything. He was never asked to verify EVERY fact on the BC OR whether the information was the same. For instance, he never asked for the mother’s address to be verified. For Onaka to say that the information “matched” when he was never requested to verify that is for him to disclose more than he is authorized to disclose. If he is not authorized to verify the genuineness of the image presented to him, then in accordance with UIPA he is supposed to deny that request and state the reasons why the request must be denied - using a Glomarized response if necessary to hide the nondiscloseable information.