My guess as a non-lawyer is that as long as the SCOTUS members do not issue a ruling, no precedent is set that could affect future court cases of this type. Because of the sensitivity of this particular election, and the ramifications of ruling that Obama would not be eligible to be president, the SCOTUS members may not want to rock the boat at this time, but want to leave the door open for future challenges of future presidents to be.
This is just my uneducated opinion.
At this point, that's probably the best guess.
After The One gets impeached, or moves home to a thatched hut in Kenya, perhaps measures to prevent such a problem again will be quietly implemented....like asking for a damn birth certificate at the state level when running for the nomination.
This is just my uneducated opinion.
Let's try to get inside the mind of the SCOTUS as it's operating right now. What's grabbing their attention?
SCOTUSblog.com has decided to hear Crawford v. Marion County Election Board and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita as consolidated cases. These cases concern voter ID guidelines and voting rights.
Take a look at how the Justices are split on this issue.
I'll post this as a separate article ("The Partisan Elephant in the Room") because I think it has a bearing on the fortunes of the BO natural-born qualification cases currently before SCOTUS.