Lawsuit over McCain citizenship should be tossed, GOP lawyers say

Oakland Tribune ^ | August 28, 2008 | Josh Richman

[Kevmo]

Lawsuit over McCain citizenship should be tossed, GOP lawyers say

By Josh Richman Oakland Tribune

Article Launched: 08/28/2008 06:19:23 PM PDT

Lawyers for John McCain and the state and national Republican Party on Thursday asked a federal judge in San Francisco to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the candidate's place on California's Nov. 4 ballot.

Markham Robinson of Vacaville, chairman-elect of California's American Independent Party, sued McCain, the GOP and California Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Aug. 11, arguing the presidential candidate's birth 72 years ago today in the Panama Canal Zone means he's not a "natural-born citizen" — a Constitutional requirement to be president.

But lawyers for the GOP and McCain wrote Thursday that Robinson lacks standing to sue and is asking the courts to tread where the Constitution forbids.

Robinson hasn't shown McCain's candidacy causes him any harm, they said: He's neither a presidential candidate himself nor authorized to sue on behalf of his party or party nominee Alan Keyes, and stripping McCain from the ballot won't much improve the party's or Keyes' chances of winning.

If McCain were tossed, the GOP presumably would put up someone else in his place, they wrote. And even without a Republican in the race, they added, "Ambassador Keyes still would have to defeat Senator Obama in the state's general election."

Keyes ran against Obama for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois in 2004 after Republicans drafted Keyes as a last-minute replacement for their initial nominee, Jack Ryan, who withdrew amid a sex scandal. Obama won the election with 70 percent of the vote to Keyes' 27 percent.

If that race is any guide, the GOP's lawyers dryly noted Thursday, Keyes' probability of beating Obama for president in California "seems, at best, speculative."

Anyhow, they argued, the Constitution says issues of presidential eligibility are to be decided by voters and the Electoral College and not the courts — a matter of separation of powers among the government's branches. And federal courts lack jurisdiction and cause to direct Bowen to exceed her statutory powers by questioning a party nominee's eligibility.

Robinson must file an opposing brief by Sept. 4, and U.S. District Judge William Alsup will consider the case Sept. 11.

The lawyers' brief doesn't discuss McCain's citizenship status. Federal law says anyone born in the Panama Canal Zone after Feb. 26, 1904, as a child of U.S. citizens is declared to be a U.S. citizen himself or herself. Some have questioned, however, whether this makes McCain a "natural-born citizen," a term the Constitution doesn't define any further; the federal law took effect about one year after McCain's birth, and doesn't say the person's citizenship was considered to have been acquired at birth.

McCain supporters have pointed to a 1790 law that provided that children of U.S. citizens born abroad "shall be considered as natural born citizens." Though no longer in effect, that law indicates what the founding fathers were thinking when the Constitution was drafted, those supporters contend.

The American Independents, a conservative party recently plagued by factional infighting, had 331,619 members as of May 19, comprising just over 2 percent of the state's registered voters. But there's anecdotal evidence that some voters join the party by mistake, believing they're registering as nonpartisan or "decline-to-state" voters.

Reach Josh Richman at 510-208-6428 or jrichman@bayareanewsgroup.com.

[VigilantAmerican]

An intriguing aspect to the whole mix of these suits and the balls of wax that roll around within them is this(based on the information I’ve seen so far): Here we have the McCain team actually trying to fight, to openly try to answer and have the suit against their candidate thrown out; basically, stepping up to the confrontation and engaging at some level.

Meanwhile, we have the Obama camp apparently not even being attributed in any report that I’ve read with any kind of response or acknowledgment that Berg v. Obama even exists; if they have in fact successfully been served, I’d really be surprised, because last I knew, Berg said in interviews that service was being attempted and there was a run-around at the FEC, etc., but nary a peep from the official Obammunists.

I suspect the signs point to confidence in McCain’s legitimacy, and cowering evasiveness and reluctance to engage due to knowing fraud by Obama.

[patj]

Would that all your fantasies become realities.

[Admin Moderator]

The Acitivism sidebar is reserved for News/Activism of the FR chapters.

Not this.

[WalterSkinner]

BTTT

[Non-Sequitur]

Kevmo’s right—if ANY given citizen can’t be said to suffer damage by having an ineligible POTUS, then who the hell WOULD be said to have standing?

He's not president.

[Non-Sequitur]

markomalley put to rest:

I know. This is a non-issue and a frivilous lawsuit which should be thrown out on any number of grounds. Not the least of which the fact that the plaintiff has no standing in the issue.

[Calpernia]

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Video: McCain asked about Juan Hernandez at Florida campaign event

[Calpernia]

>>>History shows the Huns, the Vandals, and the Barbarians used force to takeover a country to loot its resources.

Persia fell from the social impact of immigration.

[Calpernia]

I don’t think anyone doubts McCain is a citizen. I think the question is about being born in Colon makes you natural or naturalized.

[VigilantAmerican]

A court can, and must, enjoin someone if it’s shown that a fraud is underway which will, if its intent is later manifest, result in a tort.

[Polarik]

This sounds like a warped, tit-for-tat, vis-a-vis Philip Berg's lawsuit against Obama's qualifications.

McCain's been certified to run, and not Obama.

McCain showed his birth certificate to the media, Obama has not.

[Non-Sequitur]

A court can, and must, enjoin someone if it’s shown that a fraud is underway which will, if its intent is later manifest, result in a tort.

In a criminal matter yes. But this is a civil suit.

[VigilantAmerican]

Criminal matters do not involve “damages” and “torts” and “injunctions”...follow? Do you actually think someone can be enjoined in a criminal matter?

[Non-Sequitur]

Criminal matters do not involve “damages” and “torts” and “injunctions”...follow?

Yes, I follow. Now what damages are being inflicted on the plaintiff by the McCain candidacy if his allegations are true? Place a monetary figure on it.

[VigilantAmerican]

Checking myself here—there is some overlap between civil and criminal torts, but I maintain that for our porposes standing applies as I described it.

[VigilantAmerican]

Hmmm. Maybe you’d like to name your own price? And let’s not use McCain, let’s use the better example of Hussein, assuming that they’re both technically ineligible(and I’m backing off my earlier agreement with the author of the article—I don’t think McCain is ineligible at all).

What would your, say, emotional distress, and loss of legitimate political representation vis-a-vis our enemies, be worth in terms of compensation if Hussein became POTUS and was in fact grossly Constitutionally ineligible, and you knew it?

Of course your check—as a share of only one of many millions in a class action—would be tiny, as if we’d ever collect anything.

But you could still put an arbitrary and astronomical number on it.

[VigilantAmerican]

In Berg’s complaint, he actually spelled out the various millions of dollars already donated by thousands of people, and the endless hours volunteered, material support, etc. in terms of Hussein’s own party members being defrauded—and this is in tandem with the prospective damage anticipated if Hussein is allowed to continue.

[Liz]

Nice find-—and thanks for the link.

[Paperdoll]

Then, according to DHS, what we have is a case of we and them. When government serves it’s own, the people serve the government!

[Calpernia]

I want to take it that way too. We may be right also. But it may have to do with the actual, physical process of hiring (in the administrative sense).