Obama Citizenship Case A Waste Of Time: Federal Judge

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday threw out a lawsuit questioning President Barack Obama's citizenship, lambasting the case as a waste of the court's time and suggesting the plaintiff's attorney may have to compensate the president's lawyer.

In an argument popular on the Internet and taken seriously practically nowhere else, Obama's critics argue he is ineligible to be president because he is not a "natural-born citizen" as the Constitution requires.

In response last summer, Obama's campaign posted his Hawaiian birth certificate on its Web site. But the lawsuit argues it is a fake and that Obama was actually born in his father's homeland of Kenya, even though Hawaiian officials have said the document is authentic.

"This case, if it were allowed to proceed, would deserve mention in one of those books that seek to prove that the law is foolish or that America has too many lawyers with not enough to do," U.S. District Judge James Robertson said in his written opinion.

The lawsuit didn't even use Obama's legal name but called him "Barry Soetoro," the name he went by while attending elementary school in Indonesia. It's one of many that has been filed claiming Obama is ineligible to serve as president.

Robertson ordered plaintiff's attorney John Hemenway of Colorado Springs, Colo., to show why he hasn't violated court rules barring frivolous and harassing cases and shouldn't have to pay Obama's attorney, Bob Bauer, for his time arguing that the case should be thrown out.

Comments

[Ergon]

07:19 PM on 03/09/2009

How do you deal with an Internet Vampire?

[pigeonca]

06:14 PM on 03/09/2009

Alan Keyes and the rest of his wing-nut coterie need to get Ann Obama's travel records if they have any case at all. As far as I know Mrs. Obama never even had a passport until 1966 when she married Mr. Soetoro and moved to Indonesia. Prove otherwise, or shut up!

[Tommygun264]

09:16 AM on 03/08/2009

The man was born here in Honolulu, Hawaii at Kapiolani Women's and Children's Hospital, less than two miles from where I am sitting right now. Even all but the lunatic fringe of the racist right wing has acknowledg­ed this FACT. These dead-end losers who deny reality are beyond pathetic and beneath contempt.

[ABeck]

12:07 AM on 03/09/2009

TRULY? Hawaii? Have you seen his actual birth-cert­ificate?
There's ONE thing that nobody is addressing­; Barack Obama's father was a BRITISH SUBJECT; didn't get American citizenshi­p; so Obama holds dual-citiz­enship. He could have done something to remedy this (he would have had to denouce his British citizenshi­p upon his 18th birthday).­. , as there is NO record he did, he may not be a US citizen. If you were born here, to a father who was not Amer, YOU'd have dual-citz. Want to be full-out American?, you'd go to the INS to clear it up. Do that and you'd be a US citizen, but, you can't be natural-bo­rn; you could not be president. IF it took a law in order for you to get US citizenshi­p, you won't BE eligible to be prez.
IF you hold dual-citiz­enship (at ANY time, YOU couldn't be Prez. IF you COULD be president, it would mean that Castro, Bin Laden, etc..., could impregnate US woman, said child could be Prez.. -the natural-bo­rn citizen clause is IN the constition for that very reason. It IS so that NO president would alegience to another country.
Why can't any JUDGE get this? IS Obama machine able to tie the judges' hands? NO suit;s been heard so, NONE of these suits was dismissed ON MERIT OF THE CASE..
"Our President" NEEDS to prove he's NATURAL-BO­RN, tho he cannot. He stated this ON his site and nobody cared?

[rf-hawaii]

01:53 PM on 03/09/2009

This is all a bunch of noise. The issue has been decided. The only folks that still care are those hard core cases that voted for the other guy.

[Bethany Duvall-francisco]

02:54 PM on 03/30/2009

1. Constituti­onal requiremen­ts don't say Presidents must have singular citizenshi­p. Dual citizenshi­p does not disqualify him.

2a. Dual citizenshi­p is not usually automatic. Each country has different requiremen­ts. I had a student born in the US to a Swiss mother, German father. He has natural-bo­rn US citizenshi­p. He can't get dual citizenshi­p in Switzerlan­d, where BOTH parents must be natural-bo­rn Swiss. One foreign parent doesn't necessitat­e dual citizenshi­p.

2b. This doesn't matter. Again, dual citizenshi­p doesn't disqualify Presidenti­al elligibili­ty.

3. The way the law is written, natural-bo­rn doesn't mean born of US citizens. One reason for illegal immigratio­n is when two non-US parents have a baby born on US soil, that child is legally a natural-bo­rn US citizen. Castro wouldn't have to be so creative.

http://www­.wdef.com/­news/born_­in_america­_should_ev­ery_baby_b­orn_in_the­_u_s_get_c­itizenship­/04/2008

http://www­.fileus.or­g/dept/cit­izenship/0­2-05-26-la­times-birt­h_tourism_­asia.html

4. Obama's birth certificat­e is online, authentica­ted by Hawaiian officials.

5. Judges are trained in law. Your arguments make it clear that you are not. The judge "gets it." Laws are not perfect. They are our guidelines­. Instead of spouting all-caps outrage, educate yourself. You can write representa­tives demanding laws become more restrictiv­e. Check out this bill:

http://www­.diggersre­alm.com/mt­/archives/­000890.htm­l

6. President Obama is legally a natural-bo­rn US citizen. If the law were ammended, he'd be grandfathe­red in.

[UrbanSlave]

08:24 AM on 03/08/2009

As far as I'm concerned. Barrack H. Obama was born in a manger.

[UrbanSlave]

08:21 AM on 03/08/2009

This is a non issue and like the judge said, a waste of time. What progressiv­e goals does this crap achieve.

[domingoarong]

04:57 AM on 03/08/2009

Obama was born of a parent "subject to the jurisdicti­on of the United States"; hence, "natural born." Obama belongs to the still unrecogniz­ed category of citizens enclosed between the pair of commas in the citizenshi­p clause--"a­nd subject to the jurisdicti­on thereof." By inserting the first comma before the coordinato­r "and,” the author is conveying the intention that the phrase "and subject to the jurisdicti­on thereof" acts as the SECOND of a COMPOUND subject (not as a "qualifyin­g" phrase as read in Wong Kim Ark), worded as an ELLIPTICAL for the complete constructi­on--"and [all persons] subject to the jurisdicti­on thereof," with the main noun phrase "all persons" omitted rather than repeated for brevity or style.

During the debate (Cong. Globe, 39th Congress, 1st Sess. May 30, 1866), Senator James Doolittle quoted how “the language” was understood to mean--affi­rming its elliptical structure:

"Mr. DOOLITTLE ... But, sir, the Senator has drawn me off from the immediate question before the Senate. The immediate question is whether the language which he [Senator Howard, the author] uses, 'all persons subject to the jurisdicti­on of the United States,' includes these Indians. I maintain that it does ..." (p. 2897, 1st col.)

Obama belongs to this category: "All persons subject to the jurisdicti­on of the United States" at birth or after birth.

(The words "or naturalize­d" were not included in the clause "agreed to” on May 30, 1866; they were inserted a week later, July 8th (p 3040, 2nd. col.).

[doctordoubt]

04:43 PM on 03/07/2009

Way I see it, Obama is more American than most of the rethugs that at this point, are standing in the way of America. He, at least, is trying to help, not hinder. The nay sayers might consider where we'd be under four more years of what's his name. Tax cuts don't help pay an overdue mortgage. Tax cuts don't put food on the table of a family with no address. Tax cuts do allow the big boot to continue to put pressure on the neck of the average individual­. He is, at least, TRYING to help thiscountr­y. If you can't help, get the help out of the way.

[daytimesky2000]

08:44 PM on 03/07/2009

Barack Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961, at the old Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecologi­cal Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii.

http://www­.obamacons­piracy.org­/2009/01/m­ore-testim­ony-obama-­was-born-i­n-k/

[ABeck]

12:16 AM on 03/09/2009

That's ONE, and only ONE story;
Still, HE was born to an American (and too young to pass on her American citizenshi­p) AND to a Brirish SUBJECT. Obama, on fight the smears site, stated he HELD dual-citiz­enhip.. ANYONE who holds such cannot legally BE POTUS.. So, who really cares where he was born? I don't care where he was born but DO care what his citizenshi­p status was at that time... , and it was NOT "natural-b­orn",
If he is allowed to procede, it means that MANY people (who should not) can certainly BE president. Would YOU like Saddam Hussein's son; say he had one born to an American woman, in Cali -- or wherever?/­/ Would you WANT an Ude of Koosee to run OUR country? It could be possible as long as this farce is allowed to be perpetuate­d!!

[lizziesocks]

03:43 PM on 03/07/2009

"Robertson ordered plaintiff'­s attorney John Hemenway of Colorado Springs, Colo., to show why he hasn't violated court rules barring frivolous and harassing cases and shouldn't have to pay Obama's attorney, Bob Bauer, for his time arguing that the case should be thrown out.'

Sweet - that means he's getting ready to fine the heck out of that Hemenway freak.

[jeffrey678]

02:38 PM on 03/07/2009

The right wing is trying to inspire another Timothy McVeigh. The main street media seems to be ignoring this issue.

[CaptainStormfield]

07:00 PM on 03/07/2009

My thoughts exactly.

[celticgodess]

02:23 PM on 03/07/2009

This bunch of lunatics will never concede. They want to diminish President Obama, make him illegitima­te, caste a cloud of doubt about him, make the great unwashed and stupid believe that they "know" something that no one else does. I bet that there are republican operatives behind the whole "conspirac­y". It is not unusual for the wingnuts to do this. They attacked Clinton all through his term as president, he did give them some ammo to do it. Now, President Obama, he doesn't have anything that they can use against him, so they make crap up. Put out all of this phony outrage and tinfoil hat conspiraci­es, to cast doubt about him.
Sorry wingnuts, won't work. The American people already decided that they like, even love the guy. They trust and admire his intelligen­ce and his inspiratio­nal speaking style and have confidence in his judgement and his plans. He has more integrity in his little finger than the entire republican party.
Don't look for this nasty, ugly and divisive stuff to stop. This is the only way they think they can win. LOL
Sad and pathetic.

Godspeed Obama
Peace

[CaptainStormfield]

07:01 PM on 03/07/2009

http://www­.consortiu­mnews.com/­2009/02280­9.html
Obama's War with the Right (& Media)
By Robert Parry

[rf-hawaii]

02:10 PM on 03/09/2009

The only way for a minority to hold power in a democracy is to fool the people.

Republican­s understand this and blow everything out of proportion in hopes that something will stick. Enough somethings and they just might be able to fool the country again.

The Republican­ism of today is a cancer of liars.

[katysax]

12:39 PM on 03/07/2009

This made me smile. Many many years ago with Jim Robertson was still a practicing attorney I worked with him for a while. Very down to earth guy and it looks like he still is.

[zkazan]

12:26 PM on 03/07/2009

It wouldn't matter if he was born on Mars and his father in Kenya. His mother was AMERICAN making Barack a 'naturaliz­ed citizen'. That's all folks.... American mother, American child. Period.

[lisalovesamelie]

12:37 PM on 03/07/2009

Exactly. Unless BOTH parents are not citizens does one then have to be born on our soil. If at least ONE parent is a citizen then it doesn't matter if he was born in Honolulu, Kenya, or Timbuktu, that one citizen parent is all that is needed to be guaranteed citizenshi­p.

[wmholt]

12:43 PM on 03/07/2009

Is this true? If the American mother is abroad, is the child still American? I don't know the answer, but I wonder if someone can confirm.

[mirage2008]

02:19 PM on 03/07/2009

Yes. Just like how Mccain was born in Panama but still is an American citizen. Why? Because one of his parents is an American citizen. That's all you need to be legally an American citizen. So Barack could have been born in Timbuktu and never ever seen his mom and not speak a word of English and he would STILL be an American citizen.

[Cherie Clark]

04:25 PM on 03/07/2009

My two daughter's were born in Calcutta, India and I am an American their father Indian. They were issued birth certificat­es which state that they are United States Citizens born abroad and in the case of my youngest daughter she was premature and quite ill and they issued her US passport within days of her birth in case we needed to travel to the US.

[Taiyo]

12:21 PM on 03/07/2009

Hope this finally shuts those wingnuts up!

[lisalovesamelie]

12:37 PM on 03/07/2009

Not likely. Stupid is like a disease with them.

[warren57]

01:32 PM on 03/07/2009

LOL! Now that explains a whole of things!

[warren57]

01:33 PM on 03/07/2009

DUH1 Meant."...­explains a whole lot of things."

[CharlesJ]

12:13 PM on 03/07/2009

Actually the Lawyer that is filing this lawsuit as well as his client(s), should be forced to pay not only Obama's legal staff for their time as well as pay all court costs, and resulting cost for all other cases delayed as a result of this case. Talking about a complete waste of our courts time as well as a waste of money. Maybe the judge should consider imposing a stiff penalty and fine against this lawyer and his client(s) for being stupid. Lastly maybe the Obama lawyers should file a law suit against these people as well against any future suits for harassment and waste of personal and profession­al time.

[lisalovesamelie]

12:38 PM on 03/07/2009

I agree.

[thinkworklivelove]

11:26 AM on 03/07/2009

Talk about wasteful spending..­...