Posted on 12/01/2008 6:04:32 AM PST by pissant
Controversy continues to surround President-elect Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president, and a case involving his birth certificate waits for its day before the U.S. Supreme Court. A constitutional lawyer said were it to be discovered that Mr. Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen, it would have grave consequences for the nation.
According to the Constitution, a president must be a natural born citizen of the U.S. Mr. Obama's critics have failed to force him legally to produce his original birth certificate, and Mr. Obama has resisted any attempt to make him do so. Currently, only Hawaii Department of Health officials have access to Mr. Obama's original records.
Some of Mr. Obama's critics have said he was born in Kenya and have claimed he is a citizen of Kenya, Indonesia, or even a British subject.
Edwin Vieira, a constitutional lawyer who has practiced for 30 years and holds four degrees from Harvard, said if it were to be discovered Mr. Obama were not eligible for the presidency, it would cause many problems. They would be compounded if his ineligibility were discovered after he had been in office for a period of time.
"Let's assume he wasn't born in the U.S.," Mr. Vieira told The Bulletin. "What's the consequence? He will not be eligible. That means he cannot be elected validly. The people and the Electoral College cannot overcome this and the House of Representatives can't make him president. So what's the next step? He takes the oath of office, and assuming he's aware he's not a citizen, then it's a perjured oath."
Any appointments made by an ineligible president would have to be recalled, and their decisions would be invalidated.
(Excerpt) Read more at thebulletin.us ...
I doubt that, but they have the John Mccain attitude. “What can I do to help this honorable man?”
No. He just has to respond. He will likely respond with a motion to dismiss.
McCain as Prez, Biden as VP.
(from the article): “Any appointments made by an ineligible president would have to be recalled, and their decisions would be invalidated.”
Arguably, this would also be true of his “appointment” of his VP candidate, Biden. Logically, an invalid candidate for president can only select an invalid candidate for v.p.
You are 100% correct!
Yes it does. It provides for temporary leadership until a new president is elected.
“the supreme court would refuse the case”
Well, let’s get our SCOTUS information hats on, everyone. Friday, Justice Thomas will present the Donofrio inquiry for conference. If at least 4 other justices move to hear arguments, it goes forward and arguments are scheduled. It is likely that it would be “fast-tracked” to decide prior to the EC being seated.
I believe that Thomas will argue to accept. Can he convince 3 others? Possibly. Conference votes are taken up almost immediately (no “days of waiting and opinionating”; it is a simple up-or-down vote.
My prediction for the conference vote: 6-3, declined, with Roberts voting against. (I’m hoping that I’m as wrong as I was last Thursday when I said my Lions would cover the spread!)
Actually if he is disqualified the next highest Presidential candidate to collect electoral votes would become President.
CW 2 (better?)
“Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war. This war talk's spoiling all the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream. Besides, there isn't going to be any war!" — Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind
Don’t think that really matters. Even though it is now tradition that a presidential nominee picks his VP nominee, that VP is still nominated via a vote of the party, however symbolic and rote it may be.
If any of this non-a-citizen stuff bears fruit...and I have long bene dismissive of that ever happening...Biden will become the president. Barring a divine, miraculous change of heart by Democratic-leaning electors, McCain isn’t shacking up in the White House.
“it’s a perjured oath.”
Dubya already did that and got away with it. Remember McCain-Feingold?
I kinda like:
Barky the Mutt...the Bastard President.
They'd most likely take orders from the DNC. The electors are party officials, and voters in each state elected electors of whichever party, as there is no direct presidential election in the US.
“We have had one candidate die before they voted and they still voted for president.”
How did they vote? Veep of same party, other?
I noticed that too. Maybe we should just sit it out and let him go nuts, until the SHTF.
Then let the guilty parties wear it, including the "media"
"Shame on Barry Soetoro, aka Barack H. Obama, for knowingly putting the country through this.
DOes anyone think that he DOESN’T know he is not eligible.
He even said as much to Keyes during a discussion of where he was born. His response was, what difference does it make, I’m not running for president. That was in 2004.
Well, now he is. He did this to us."
And the Democrats and those who voted for him. It's a bit like a Frankenstein monster.
No, new elections would be the only way to go.
Because 365 of the Electoral College electors are Democrats committed to voting for Obama. If not him then they'll vote for Biden.
Given the economic and international climate, a constitutional crisis of this magnitude is exactly what America does not need. The fact that this continues worries me greatly that the polarik, texasdarlin and others are correct.
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