Missouri Birther Bill Moves Forward

State senators in Missouri voted to advance a birther bill this week, allowing potential floor debate on the measure to force presidential candidates to prove their status as natural-born citizens before getting on the ballot.

Missouri lawmakers voted 4-to-1 to pass the bill out of a Senate committee.

The legislation had earlier passed a vote in the state House after a contentious debate that had led to charges of racism from its opposition. Supporters have maintained that the bill, which wouldn't go into effect until 2016, has nothing to do with persistent conspiracy theories about the eligibility of Barack Obama to be president and the authenticity of his birth certificate.

Republican state Senator Luann Ridgeway is in favor of the measure, but she told Missouri's KMOX that it might simply be too controversial to take up on the Senate floor.

"I completely understand the concerns of people who want to make sure that our Constitution is willing to be obeyed," she said. "Our president is supposed to be born in the United States. But, I just don’t know if there are enough people out there that are willing to stand up in opposition to it."

The state Senate has three weeks left in the current legislative session to address the bill.

Earlier on HuffPost:

Comments

[v98max]

02:03 PM on 05/02/2012

John McCain was born in Panama.

[WeAlwaysKnewIt]

12:53 AM on 05/03/2012

Senate passed a resolution in 2008 declaring natural born citizenship to Johnny. This is how we take care of our special ones. Bit of horse manure or a little dab'll do it.

[bdaved]

04:40 AM on 05/03/2012

The Senate passed S. 511, resolving that Senator McCain is a natural born citizen. It was a non-binding resolution, and didn't really amount to anything more than an expression of the collective opinion of the Senate.

[jimimosey]

11:21 AM on 05/02/2012

Orlyyyyy!

[TwinX]

10:38 AM on 05/02/2012

If Mittens fails this time around, and if he tries again in 2016, and if the language in this bill remains the same, and if he no longer has his 'original', then he'll be ineligible.

Michigan is a 'short form' State. :-)

[laserbabe]

03:29 PM on 05/02/2012

and missouri is apparently a short-bus state...

[Lesann]

08:42 AM on 05/03/2012

Thanks for the laugh this morning. F&F

[dr45309a]

08:42 AM on 05/02/2012

If a particular state wants to see a birth certificate before they get on the ballot what is wrong with that unless there is something to hide. This is just like those voter ID laws unless there is something to hide what is the problem Every state has different hoops for a candidate to jump through. This is just one of Missouri's

[mairs]

09:36 AM on 05/02/2012

The voter ID law has already been abused in one state. One woman took a video of taking her son to the DMV to get a voter ID card. One of the clerks said that his proof of residency, a bank statement, didn't have enough "activity" on it. She went to a supervisor who said it was fine, then he asked for $28. It's illegal to charge a poll tax to vote. She said it was for a voter ID. The supervisor said then it's free. She talked to him further and he said that they were instructed not to ask what the ID was for. If the person volunteered that it was for voting, then it was free, but otherwise the ID was $28.

Just more tricks to make it harder to vote, trying to slip in a poll tax on the sly to weed out people with little money or who are young, just starting out and don't have a lot of cash, who might vote Democratic.

[dr45309a]

10:28 AM on 05/02/2012

Give me a break!! If I went in to vote and all I had was a bank statement for ID I would get laughed out of the polling place. What kind of Id did the kid need to get the bank account?
There is nothing wrong with asking for a state issued picture ID when you vote. The fact that they went in with a video camera tells me they were looking for trouble from the onset. As for not having alot of cash-- well they had enough for that video camera.By the way where is the video?

[TwinX]

09:38 AM on 05/02/2012

Asking for a birth certificate is fine, but the wording of this bill is a little clunky and may - depending on interpretation - fall foul of the full faith and credit clause.

[dr45309a]

10:21 AM on 05/02/2012

I don't know, I just read the summary of the bill. It seemed pretty straight forward to me here is the link http://house.mo.gov/BillSummaryPrn.aspx?bill=HB1046&year=2012&code=R

See what you think

[Josh Greenberg]

08:16 AM on 05/02/2012

Can you be disqualified from serving in a Missouri state legislature if your parents are siblings?

Doesn't really look like it.

[hopeisalive]

07:51 AM on 05/02/2012

Missouri is truely the "show me State" and it's State animal being the mule fits.

[djaikins]

07:36 AM on 05/02/2012

Of all states, Missouri should tread lightly on a bill that requires anyone to prove the status of their birth and parentage.

[macday]

07:30 AM on 05/02/2012

It is hard to believe that we have so many Ignorant and uneducated people in this country these Birthers are all Insane

[laserbabe]

03:30 PM on 05/02/2012

and proud tin foil collectors.

[Alex Fidelibus]

07:04 AM on 05/02/2012

The Federal Elections Commission already requires candidates to submit their birth certificates, with a whole host of other information, before they can run for office.

This is just political posturing.

[laserbabe]

03:31 PM on 05/02/2012

posturing that works with the exact bigoted base that elected them, is the problem.

[Alex Fidelibus]

04:00 PM on 05/02/2012

Yep.

[inthelandoftheblind]

07:01 AM on 05/02/2012

"Republican state Senator Luann Ridgeway is in favor of the measure," we...."want to make sure that our Constitution is willing to be obeyed,"

Whaaa? I'm sure if it could, the Constitution would be quite willing to be obeyed! US citizens, however, seem to want to pick & choose which aspects they deem worthy to be "obeyed".

[novabird]

06:38 AM on 05/02/2012

Birther: just a fancy, modern day word for racist.

[jason83]

03:08 PM on 05/02/2012

It's as fancy as ketchup.

[kyramizuno]

05:53 AM on 05/02/2012

He's been the president for FOUR YEARS! Why are we STILL ON THIS?!

Oh, because he's half-black. That's why.

Grow up, America.

[inthelandoftheblind]

07:21 AM on 05/02/2012

Also it's because he's a Dem & probably considered a Northerner, & educated,so suspicious - as inherently different. Some goopers still can't get over the fact that Bush / Cheney aren't in office anymore, that the North won, & that all men are created equal, so have the same rights under the Constitution.

Re: the "birthers" - How anyone can believe presidential candidates aren't already vetted is astounding.Why don't these politicians get to work on something helpful & purposeful!

Also, it seems bizarre that it's so easy for them to believe Obama wasn't a naturally born American, when his mother was living in Hawaii at the time.What young woman who found herself pregnant, would 1st thing - run out, get a passport & head straight for Kenya to deliver her 1st child, rather than in the state she's living in - Hawaii! I'm sure they had fine hospitals in Hawaii.

They also must believe that on the day he was born, the conspiracy began, & that someone paid off the newspaper & the state - to file false documents announcing his birth, knowing he'd become the 1st black POTUS.

These people no doubt have the brains on par with slow moving lizards.There's no other explanation for such ignorance!

[mairs]

09:39 AM on 05/02/2012

Someone actually posted that we don't know anything about the President. These people!

[Dimensio]

10:26 AM on 05/02/2012

These people no doubt have the brains on par with slow moving lizards.

Your personal attack against slow-moving lizards is unwarranted.

[chris hatala]

05:41 AM on 05/02/2012

Missouri and whie sheets.

[Bettysdad]

03:06 AM on 05/02/2012

All I can say is that a black President doesn't scare me.

[SeanMartin]

03:06 AM on 05/02/2012

I gather Missouri has 100% employment, no poverty, and the finest education in the country, that they can waste their time on more of the nonsense.

[big tom]

04:34 AM on 05/02/2012

yes .. that is the way i see it.... they are doing so well.... plenty of time for crap....IDLE HANDS ARE THE DEVILS WORKSHOP...