Conspiracy theories about the citizenship of Barack Obama hold that Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States and is therefore not eligible to be President of the United States. Some of these conspiracy theories allege that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, or that his birth certificate is a forgery. Others allege that Obama is a citizen of Indonesia, or that because he had dual citizenship at birth (British and American), he is not a natural born citizen of the United States, which is a requirement to be President of the United States under Article Two of the United States Constitution. These conspiracy theories received attention in mid-2008 following Obama's victory in the Democratic primaries, in late 2008–early 2009 with regard to the Electoral College vote and Obama's inauguration, and in late 2010 when Hawaii's recently elected governor, Neil Abercrombie, said he would like to release more information about Obama's birth, to dispel the rumors.[3] Abercrombie abandoned that effort in early 2011 because privacy laws barred him from releasing a person's birth documentation without that person's consent.[4][5]
These claims are promoted by a number of fringe theorists and political opponents, some of whom filed lawsuits that sought to disqualify Obama from running for, or being confirmed as, President, or to obtain additional proof that he is qualified. All of the cases have been rejected in lower courts.[6] Three suits were filed with and dismissed by the Supreme Court of the United States.[7][8] Although Obama was confirmed as president-elect by Congress on January 8, 2009,[9] and sworn in as President on January 20,[10] litigation continued into his presidency. Those promoting these conspiracy theories are frequently called "birthers", paralleling "truthers"[11] for adherents of 9/11 conspiracy theories.[12]
In 2008, the Obama campaign released his birth certificate, certified by the Hawaii Department of Health, and posted a scanned image of it online. The posted certificate states that Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961.[1] The certificate also states, "This copy serves as prima facie evidence of the fact of birth in any court proceeding". Frequent arguments of those questioning Obama's eligibility are that he has not released a photocopy of his "original" or "long form" birth certificate, but rather a redacted "short form" version. It has also been claimed that the use of the term "certification of live birth" on the document means it is not equivalent to one's "birth certificate". These arguments have been debunked numerous times by media investigations,[13] every judicial forum that has addressed the matter, and Hawaiian government officials—a consensus of whom have concluded that the certificate released by the Obama campaign is indeed his official birth certificate.[14] Asked about this, Hawaiian Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo stated that Hawaii "does not have a short-form or long-form certificate".[15] Moreover, the director of her Department has confirmed that the state "has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures".[16][17]
On November 9, 2008, in response to persistent rumors, the Honolulu Advertiser posted on its web site a screenshot of its August 13, 1961 birth announcement taken from its microfilmed archives. Such notices were sent to newspapers routinely by the Hawaii Department of Health.[18]
Nevertheless, some Republican elected officials have expressed skepticism about Obama's citizenship or have displayed a lack of willingness to acknowledge it,[19] while Republican members of the U.S. Congress and state assemblies have proposed and voted for legislation that would require presidential candidates to provide documentation of their qualifications to be president, including natural-born citizenship. Additionally, polls conducted in 2010 suggested that more than a quarter of adult Americans doubted Obama's U.S. birth.[13]
Early life of Obama
People who have doubts about Obama's eligibility question, or reject, at least some of the following details about his early life:
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now called Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,[18][20][21][22] to Ann Dunham,[23] herself a natural born citizen of the United States from Wichita, Kansas.[24] Obama's father was Barack Obama, Sr., a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya Colony. Obama's parents were divorced in 1964. His mother subsequently married Indonesian student Lolo Soetoro, who was attending the University of Hawaii. The family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1967,[25] where they remained until Obama was ten years old. Obama then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and has resided in the United States since 1971.
Citizenship rumors and claims
During the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential primaries and the subsequent presidential election, numerous chain e-mails circulated false rumors about Obama's background.[vague][26]
Jim Geraghty of the conservative website National Review Online may have sparked further speculation when he asked that Obama release his birth certificate.[27][28] Geraghty wrote that releasing his birth certificate could debunk several false rumors circulating on the Internet, namely: that his middle name was originally Muhammad rather than Hussein; that his mother had originally named him "Barry" rather than "Barack"; and that Barack Obama, Sr. was not his biological father, as well as the rumor that Barack Obama was not a natural born citizen.[8][28][29]
Release of birth certificate and its rejection by conspiracy theorists
On June 12, 2008, Obama's campaign responded to the rumors by posting on a website called "Fight The Smears", a copy of Obama's birth certificate that had been obtained from the Hawaii Department of Health in June 2007.[30][31] In releasing the certificate, the Obama website declared that the rumors, "aren't actually about that piece of paper — they're about manipulating people into thinking Barack is not an American citizen."'[31] The campaign also provided the Daily Kos blog with a copy of the document.[32][33] Referring to the fact that the posted image was titled "Certification of Live Birth" and was a recent copy, National Review columnist Jim Geraghty, said on June 12, 2008 that:
...this document is what he or someone authorized by him was given by the state out of its records. Barring some vast conspiracy within the Hawaii State Department of Health, there is no reason to think his [original] birth certificate would have any different data.[32]
The release of the certificate resulted in a fresh round of questions. It was asserted that the certificate had been digitally forged with Adobe Photoshop and lacked a stamped seal of the state, which led them to demand that Obama release his "original" 1961 birth certificate.[8] Jerome Corsi, author of the book The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, told Fox News that "the campaign has a false, fake birth certificate posted on their website... it's been shown to have watermarks from Photoshop. It's a fake document that's on the Web site right now, and the original birth certificate the campaign refuses to produce."[24] This view was rejected by the state authorities, the media and independent factchecking organizations. FactCheck.org was invited to view the Obama campaign's hard copy of the candidate's Certification of Live Birth and concluded:
FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.[24]
The director of Hawaii's Department of Health, Chiyome Fukino, issued a statement confirming that the state held Obama's "original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures".[16][17] Noting "there have been numerous requests for Sen. Barack Hussein Obama's official birth certificate", Fukino explained that the department was prohibited by state law from releasing it to "persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record." She stated: "No state official, including Gov. Linda Lingle, has ever instructed that this vital record be handled in a manner different from any other vital record in the possession of the State of Hawaii."[16][34] According to CNN's researchers, the original birth certificate no longer exists, as Hawaii discarded all paper birth records in 2001, and the certification of live birth is the official copy.[35]
Contradicting CNN, Janice Okubo, public information officer for the Hawaii DOH, said "We don't destroy vital records." The Health Department's director emphasized the assertion:
I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawai'i State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawai'i State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawai'i and is a natural-born American citizen. I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008, over eight months ago.[36]
Claims that Obama was not born in Hawaii
Some have pointed to a provision of Hawaiian law that permits the issuance of certifications of live birth to those born outside the state or even outside the country.[who?] However, the suggestion that this could have applied to Obama was rejected by Okubo: "If you were born in Bali, for example, you could get a certificate from the state of Hawaii saying you were born in Bali. You could not get a certificate saying you were born in Honolulu. The state has to verify a fact like that for it to appear on the certificate."[37] On July 27, 2009, Fukino issued a statement explicitly stating she has "seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen."[38][39]
The image posted online at Obama's website is a "Certification of Live Birth" and is sometimes referred to as a short form birth certificate. It contains less information than the longer "Certificate of Live Birth." FactCheck.org states that the short form is "prima facie evidence of the fact of birth in any court proceeding".[24] Obama's short form was laser-printed and certified by the State of Hawaii on June 6, 2007. The Hawaii State Department of Health no longer issues the long-form Certificate and issues only the shorter Certification upon request.[40]
In 2008, Forbes magazine reported that Janice Okubo said, "we are not allowed to confirm vital information and vital records."[41] However, either Okubo or Forbes may have been in error, because later (above-referenced) statements by both Okubo and Chiyome Fukino did confirm that Obama was an American citizen born in Hawaii.[37][39]
Okubo elaborated on state policy for the release of vital records: "If someone from Obama's campaign gave us permission in person and presented some kind of verification that he or she was Obama's designee, we could release the vital record."[42] A hospital spokesperson at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children has said that their standard procedure is to neither confirm nor deny Obama was born there, "even though all the information out there says he was born at Kapiolani Hospital", citing federal privacy laws.[18]
In 1961, birth notices for Barack Obama were published in both the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on August 13 and August 14, 1961, respectively, listing the home address of Obama's parents as 6085 Kalanianaole Highway in Honolulu.[18][24] On November 9, 2008, in response to the persistent rumors, the Advertiser posted on its web site a screenshot of the announcement taken from its microfilmed archives. Such notices were sent to newspapers routinely by the Hawaii Department of Health.[18]
In an editorial published on July 29, 2009, the Star-Bulletin pointed out that both newspapers' vital-statistics columns are available on microfilm in the main state library. "Were the state Department of Health and Obama's parents really in cahoots to give false information to the newspapers, perhaps intending to clear the way for the baby to someday be elected president of the United States?" the newspaper asked.[43]
Andrew Malcolm, of the Los Angeles Times, has argued that Obama would be eligible for the presidency, because his mother was an American citizen, irrespective of where he was born, saying that Obama's mother "could have been on Mars when wee Barry emerged and he'd still be American."[44] According to UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh, in the hypothetical scenario that Obama was born outside the U.S., he would not be a natural-born citizen since the then-applicable law would have required Obama's mother to have been in the U.S. at least "five years after the age of 14", but Ann Dunham was three months shy of her 19th birthday when Obama was born.[45]
Claims regarding Kenyan birth certificate
On August 2, 2009, Orly Taitz released and attached to court documents a purported Kenyan birth certificate which she said, if authenticated and shown to be genuine, would significantly narrow and shorten the discovery and pre-trial litigation period in the Keyes v. Bowen lawsuit.[46] Legal documents submitted describe the document as an "unauthenticated color photocopy of certified copy of registration of birth".[47][48] The document was almost immediately revealed to be a forgery. It purports to have been issued by the "Republic of Kenya", when in fact, such a state did not yet exist at the time of Obama's birth as indicated on the document (Kenya was a British Colony until 1963).[49][50] Subsequently, evidence was unearthed that the alleged Kenyan birth certificate is a modified version of a 1959 Australian birth certificate found on an online genealogy website.[51][52] The Washington Independent website cited an anonymous blogger[53] as having taken credit for the forgery and posting four photos substantiating the claim.[54] Examples of actual 1961 Kenyan birth certificates have also been revealed, which look substantially different from the document Taitz submitted to the court.[55]
Claims that Hawaiian-born is not necessarily "natural-born"
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States...." According to Snopes, "Since Hawaii is part of the United States, even if Barack Obama's parents were both non-U.S. citizens who hadn't even set foot in the country until just before he was born, he'd still qualify as a natural-born citizen."[56] Despite this, there have been claims that, although born in Hawaii, Obama does not qualify as a "natural-born citizen".[57][58]
Parental citizenship claims
Some campaigners, such as Leo Donofrio, contend that, in order for a person to be a natural born citizen within the meaning of Article II, Section 1, it is necessary that both parents be U.S. citizens at the time of that person's birth.[57] Those who subscribe to this theory argue that since Obama's father was not a U.S. citizen, Obama could not have been a natural born citizen, and is therefore ineligible to be President of the United States.
Dual citizenship claims
A similar but distinct theory contends that a person cannot be a natural born citizen if he is a dual citizen at birth. Those who subscribe to this theory argue that because Obama's father held Citizenship of the UK and colonies, and not U.S. citizenship, at the time Obama was born, Obama was born a dual citizen and therefore wasn't a natural born citizen.[58] Under this theory Chester Arthur would have been ineligible for the Presidency because he was a British subject, as well as a U.S. citizen, at birth.
In August 2008, the Rocky Mountain News ran an online article asserting that Obama is both a U.S. and a Kenyan citizen.[59] This turned out to be incorrect. Although the paper published an apology for the mistake, it provided more fuel for online rumors about Obama's eligibility for the presidency. FactCheck noted that Obama had indeed been a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC) under British law, by virtue of his descent from a Kenyan father at a time when Kenya was a British colony, and lost CUKC citizenship and became a Kenyan citizen when that country gained independence in 1963. However, Kenya's constitution prohibits dual citizenship in adulthood. Obama had therefore automatically lost his Kenyan citizenship at age 23, in 1984, by failing to formally renounce any non-Kenyan citizenship and swear an oath of allegiance to Kenya.[60]
Under either the parental citizenship or the dual citizenship theories, President Chester Arthur would not have been qualified for the office. His father, a Protestant preacher from Ireland, was a British subject who did not naturalize as a U.S. citizen until some years after the future President's birth.
Other claims
Claims that the certification of live birth is irrelevant
Lt. Col Terry Lakin's attorney, among others, has claimed that anyone, including foreign-born children, could acquire a Hawaiian certification of live birth, and so Obama's possession of such a certificate does not prove that he was born in Hawaii.[61] However, the suggestion that this could have applied to Obama was rejected by Janice Okubo, director of communications for the Hawaii Department of Health: "If you were born in Bali, for example, you could get a certificate from the state of Hawaii saying you were born in Bali. You could not get a certificate saying you were born in Honolulu. The state has to verify a fact like that for it to appear on the certificate".[37] Another fact that refutes this specific claim is that the law allowing foreign-born children to obtain Hawaiian birth certificates did not exist until 20 years after Obama was born, while Obama’s published birth certificate says his birth information was recorded four days after his birth in 1961, and explicitly states that he was born in Honolulu.[62]
Additionally, some people claim that the information in the birth certificate only has to be based on the testimony of one parent.[62]
Claims about travel to Pakistan using a non-U.S. passport
It has also been claimed that Obama could not be a natural-born citizen because he traveled to Pakistan at a time when there was a ban on United States passport holders entering that country, which means he must have traveled using a non-U.S. passport. The OC Weekly comments that these assertions are not true:
The Pakistan "travel ban" is a complete fabrication based on zero evidence and completely contradicted by State Department records and a 1981 New York Times article.[63]
The New York Times article mentioned, along with U.S. State Department travel advisories from 1981, make it clear that travel to Pakistan by U.S. passport holders was possible at that time.[64][65]
Obama's paternal step-grandmother's version of events
Another incorrect but popularly reported claim is that his father's step-mother, Sarah Obama, told Anabaptist Bishop Ron McRae in a recorded transatlantic telephone conversation that she was present when Obama was born in Kenya.
The McClatchy newspapers gave an explanation of how the false story about Obama's step-grandmother began. The tape relied on by Berg and others is cut off in the middle of the conversation, before the passage in which she clarifies her meaning: "'Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America,' the translator says after talking to the woman. ... Another response later says, 'Obama in Hawaii. Hawaii. She says he was born in Hawaii.'"[66]
Sarah Obama shed more light on the controversy in a 2007 interview with the Tribune Company. In the interview, Obama's paternal step grandmother stated that six months after Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham were married, she received a letter (at her home in Kenya) announcing the birth of Barack Obama II, who was born August 4, 1961.[67]
Campaigners and proponents
Notable advocates of the view that Obama may not be eligible for the Presidency include Philip J. Berg, a Pennsylvania attorney and 9/11 conspiracy theorist;[68] Berg describes himself as a "moderate to liberal" Democrat who backed Hillary Clinton for president.[69] Another notable advocate is Alan Keyes, who was defeated by Obama in the 2004 Illinois U.S. Senate election, served as a diplomat in the Reagan administration, and is currently a media personality and self described "conservative political activist."[70][71] Orly Taitz, a California dentist and attorney who emigrated from the Soviet Union to Israel, then to the United States, and holds dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship, has been called the "queen bee of the birthers", because she is often seen as the face of the movement.[72] Other notable advocates include Andy Martin, a perennial candidate who was "widely credited with starting the cyberwhisper campaign" that Obama is a secret Muslim,[73] and Robert L. Schulz, a tax protester and activist who placed full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune in December 2008 arguing that Obama had been born in Kenya or had subsequently renounced U.S. citizenship.[74] The Constitution Party, a dominionist third party, is also campaigning for release of Obama's original long-form certificate.[75]
The website AmericaMustKnow.com encouraged visitors to lobby members of the Electoral College to vote against Obama's confirmation as President and become faithless electors.[8] Electors around the country received numerous letters and e-mails contending that Obama's birth certificate is a forgery and that he was born in Kenya, and requesting that Obama be denied the presidency.[76] Some of the online campaigners coordinated their efforts with weekly conference calls, in which they discussed the latest news and how to advance the story.[77]
The campaign has also been supported by the WorldNetDaily (WND) website, which sponsored a letter-writing campaign to the Supreme Court.[8] WND's publisher Joseph Farah has written a number of editorials arguing that Obama's eligibility needs to be confirmed. WND has mounted an advertising campaign, using electronic billboards to ask "Where's The Birth Certificate?".[78][79]
The talk radio hosts Michael Savage, G. Gordon Liddy, Brian Sussman, Lars Larson, Bob Grant, Jim Quinn, Rose Tennent, Barbara Simpson and Mark Davis have all promoted the ineligibility claims on their radio shows. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs have also broached the issue several times on their shows.[80] Savage has asserted: "We're getting ready for the Communist takeover of America with a noncitizen at the helm."[77]
The anti-Obama campaigners have not, however, been unanimous in their approach. For example, WorldNetDaily has been critical of Philip Berg's forgery claims, saying that a "WND investigation into Obama's [short form] birth certificate utilizing forgery experts ... found the document to be authentic."[81] At the same time, WND has been urging Obama to release his original long-form certificate, and WND contends that "Hawaii at the time of Obama's birth allowed births that took place in foreign countries to be registered in Hawaii,"[82] ignoring the fact that a birth certificate issued in such circumstances would list the actual place of birth, not a Hawaiian location such as Honolulu.[37] A subsequent WND article seemed to backtrack on the earlier one, saying of the experts it had quoted earlier that "None of them could report conclusively that the electronic image was authentic or that it was a forgery."[83] This apparent reversal prompted MSNBC's Keith Olbermann to declare WND's Joseph Farah to be his "Worst Person in the World" for January 5, 2009.[84]
According to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, "the birther movement has gained a large following on the radical right... it has been adopted by the most noxious elements out there." Some of those "noxious elements" include a number of avowed white-supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.[85][86] James von Brunn, an avowed white supremacist charged as the gunman in the June 10, 2009, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting, had previously posted messages to the Internet accusing Obama and the media of hiding documents about his life.[87][88] Ben Smith of The Politico commented: "The penetration of the birther mythology into the violent fringe has to be a worry for the Secret Service, because at its heart, it's about denying Obama's legitimacy to hold the office of president."[87]
Elected officials
Richard Shelby
In February 2009, a local Alabama newspaper reported that at a town hall meeting Senator Richard Shelby was asked if there was any truth to the rumors that Obama was not a natural-born citizen. According to the paper, Shelby responded that "Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate".[89] A Shelby spokesperson denied the story, but the newspaper stood by the story.[90]
Roy Blunt
On July 28, 2009, Mike Stark approached Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt asking him about the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen. Blunt responded:
What I don’t know is why the President can’t produce a birth certificate. I don’t know anybody else that can’t produce one. And I think that’s a legitimate question. No health records, no birth certificate.[91]
Blunt's spokesperson later claimed that the quote was taken out of context.[92]
Jean Schmidt
After giving a speech at the Voice of America Freedom Rally in West Chester, Ohio on September 5, 2009, Republican congresswoman Jean Schmidt replied to a woman who commented that Obama was ineligible for the Presidency,"I agree with you. But the courts don't."[93] Schmidt's office subsequently responded that a video clip of this comment was "taken out of context", and reiterated that her stated position is that Obama is a citizen.[94] She had earlier voted to certify the Electoral College vote affirming his presidency, and had said she believes Obama is a U.S. citizen.[95] The statement was issued in response to a July 28, 2009, YouTube video in which Schmidt was seen running away from Mike Stark when he asked whether or not she had any questions about President Obama’s citizenship status.[96]
Sarah Palin
On December 3, 2009, Sarah Palin was interviewed on Rusty Humphries' radio talk show. During the interview, Humphries asked Palin if she would make Barack Obama's birth certificate a campaign issue in 2012, should she decide to run. Palin responded:
I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue. I don't have a problem with that. I don't know if I would have to bother to make it an issue, because I think that members of the electorate still want answers.
Humphries followed up, asking whether she thinks Obama's birth certificate is a fair question to be looking at. Palin answered, "I think it's a fair question, just like I think past association and past voting records—all of that is fair game. The McCain–Palin campaign didn't do a good enough job in that area."[97]
After news organizations and blogs picked up the quotation and associated Palin's comments with the "birther" movement,[98] Palin issued a statement on her Facebook page in which she clarified that she meant to say that voters have the right to ask questions, and she herself has never asked Obama to produce a birth certificate. She then went on to compare questioning of Obama's birth certificate to questions that were raised during the 2008 presidential elections about her maternity to her son, Trig.[99] The linkage between the question whether Trig is her son to Barack Obama's birth certificate issues has been heavily criticized by Mark Milian of the Los Angeles Times.[100] In addition, Andrew Sullivan, an established skeptic of Palin's relationship with Trig, wrote in response to her comments: "Palin has never produced Trig's birth certificate or a single piece of objective medical evidence that proves he is indeed her biological son."[101]
David Vitter
At a townhall meeting in Metairie, Louisiana on July 11, 2010, David Vitter responded to a question about Barack Obama's birth certificate saying "I personally don't have standing to bring litigation in court, but I support conservative legal organizations and others who would bring that to court. I think that is the valid and most possibly effective grounds to do it." His campaign did not provide any additional comments on the matter.[102][103]
Military
Court-martial of Lieutenant Colonel Lakin
On April 13, 2010, the United States Army announced that it would court-martial Lieutenant Colonel Terrence Lee Lakin, a surgeon in the Medical Corps, for refusing to report for deployment to Afghanistan. Lakin asserted that due to citizenship issues, Obama is not legally the Commander in Chief, and therefore lacks the authority to send him to Afghanistan. The military revoked Lakin's Pentagon building pass, and confiscated his government laptop computer.[104] Lakin was assigned to Walter Reed Army Medical Center while awaiting trial.[105]
Lakin's case differed from Stefan Cook's case in that Cook volunteered to deploy, received orders, and then filed a civil suit refusing to serve; the military responded by revoking Cook's voluntary orders.[106] Lakin was ordered to deploy and he refused the orders, whereupon the military eventually initiated a criminal law prosecution under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. On September 2, 2010, Colonel Denise Lind, the presiding judge, issued a ruling in the case that Obama's status as a natural born citizen is irrelevant in the court martial case against Lakin, as Obama's eligibility is outside the jurisdiction of the military and falls within the jurisdiction of the United States Congress instead.[107]
Three retired generals have publicly expressed support for Lakin. The first was Army Major General (retired) Paul E. Vallely, a senior military analyst for Fox News. In an interview, Vellely stated "I think many in the military – and many out of the military – question the natural-birth status of Barack Obama."[108] Following Vallely's announcement, Army Major General (retired) Jerry Curry and Air Force Lieutenant General (retired) Thomas G. McInerney also expressed public support for Lakin.[108][109]
On December 15, 2010 a military jury convicted Lakin on a charge of missing movement by design.[110] He was sentenced to six months confinement and dismissed from service.[111] During the sentencing phase of the trial, the prosecution played a video that Lakin had made and posted online in which he challenged Obama's eligibility. Lakin tearfully responded that the video had been a mistake and that he "would not do this again."[111]
Commentary and criticism
In an August 23, 2008, article about Berg's lawsuit, WND claimed it had investigated Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate using forgery experts and "found the document to be authentic",[81] contradicting claims made in other WND articles and in Corsi's book. However, on December 20, after numerous liberal websites, politicians and media personalities touted WND's findings, Joseph Farah claimed in a WND column that the forgery experts had not actually concluded it was authentic and that "None of them could report conclusively that the electronic image [of the birth certificate on Obama's campaign website] was authentic or that it was a forgery."[83] After MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named Farah the "Worst Person in the World" on his show Countdown for his apparent reversal, Farah defended himself, claiming "the veracity of that image was never the major issue of contention. Rather, the major issue is where is the rest of the birth certificate – the part that explains where the baby was born, who the delivery doctor was, etc. ...I can tell you WND has done its part to find out the truth."[113]
Critics have dubbed proponents of claims about Obama's eligibility "birthers", drawing a parallel with 9/11 conspiracy theorists or "truthers". MSNBC political commentator Rachel Maddow defines a "birther" as:
a specific new breed of American conspiracy theorists who believe that the real problem with Barack Obama being president is that he can't possibly have been born in the United States. He's not eligible to be president. The birth certificate is a fake. He's a foreigner. Once this has been exposed, I guess, he will be run out of the White House and exposed for the alien, communist, Muslim, gay, drug dealer, al-Qaeda member that he is ...[114]
Leslie Savan of The Nation commented:
The Birthers go beyond simple conspiracy theories — they're cast members of the ongoing American denying-reality show, not unlike the folks who deny the moonlanding or the Holocaust, and very much like the Creationists who insist that the Earth is but 6,000 years old, the Teabaggers who refuse to believe they must pay taxes, the 9/11 Truthers who say the government attacked the Twin Towers, and, as we might call them, the Inhofers who believe global warming is a hoax.[115]
A number of conservative commentators have strongly criticized the birth-certificate theorists and their effect on the wider conservative movement. Columnist Michelle Malkin has written that "birth certificate hunters have lurched into rabid Truther territory" and that "they accuse anyone who disagrees with them of being part and parcel of the grand plan to install Emperor Obama and usurp the rule of law."[116] At the same time, Malkin says that there "may be a seed of a legitimate constitutional issue to explore here" regarding the broader issue of how the citizenship requirement is enforced for presidential candidates.[116] Michael Medved, a prominent conservative talk-show host, has attacked birth-certificate theorists as "crazy, nutburger, demagogue, money-hungry, exploitative, irresponsible, filthy conservative imposters" who are "the worst enemy of the conservative movement" and "make us look sick, troubled and not suitable for civilized company."[117] Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has referred to the birthers as "just a few cranks."[118] Paleoconservative pundit Steve Sailer has dismissed the theory as "a very silly idea", saying,
Of course he was born in Hawaii. Have you ever looked at where Hawaii is on a globe?... The idea that his heavily pregnant mother... would get on an early 707 and fly at great expense to some foreign country is ridiculous — especially the popular theory that he was born in Kenya. Do you know how many different flights she would have had to take to get to Kenya in 1961?[119]
An editorial in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin dismissed some of the claims about Obama's eligibility as proposing "a vast conspiracy involving Obama's parents, state officials, the news media, the Secret Service, think-tanks and a host of yet-to-be-uncovered others who have connived since Obama's birth to build a false record so that he could eventually seek the presidency 47 years later."[120] The St. Petersburg Times' fact-checking website, PolitiFact.com, comments:
It is possible that Obama conspired his way to the precipice of the world's biggest job, involving a vast network of people and government agencies over decades of lies. Anything's possible. But step back and look at the overwhelming evidence to the contrary and your sense of what's reasonable has to take over. There is not one shred of evidence to disprove PolitiFact's conclusion that the candidate's name is Barack Hussein Obama, or to support allegations that the birth certificate he released isn't authentic. And that's true no matter how many people cling to some hint of doubt and use the Internet to fuel their innate sense of distrust.[121]
Some commentators have raised questions about Obama's birth certificate even while condemning the tactics of those people campaigning to have him declared ineligible. For example, social critic Camille Paglia argued in the magazine Salon:
I had thought for many months that the flap over Obama's birth certificate was a tempest in a teapot. But simple questions about the certificate were never resolved to my satisfaction. Thanks to their own blathering, fanatical overkill, of course, the right-wing challenges to the birth certificate never gained traction. But Obama could have ended the entire matter months ago by publicly requesting Hawaii to issue a fresh, long-form, stamped certificate and inviting a few high-profile reporters in to examine the document and photograph it. (The campaign did make the "short-form" certificate available to Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.)[122]
Paglia's argument that Obama should release a copy of the full, original 1961 certificate is perhaps the most common argument of people questioning Obama's eligibility; even if Obama were to oblige, the issue might not go away, in view of the fact that it was the Obama campaign's release of the short-form that "stoked the fever of conspiracy mongers", as Salon's Alex Koppelman put it.[14] Factcheck.org notes, "The Hawaii Department of Health's birth record request form[123] does not give the option to request a photocopy of your long-form birth certificate, but their short form has enough information to be acceptable to the State Department."[24]
According to Salon, "almost all of the people who've been most prominent in pushing this story have a history of conspiracist thought."[14] In response to the notion that Obama's grandparents might have planted a birth announcement in newspapers just so their grandson could some day be president, FactCheck suggested that "those who choose to go down that path should first equip themselves with a high-quality tinfoil hat."[24] Brooks Jackson, the director of FactCheck, comments that "it all reflects a surge of paranoid distress among people who don't like Barack Obama" and who want the election results to go away.[124] Chip Berlet, a journalist who has studied the spread of conspiracy theories, notes "For some people, when their side loses an election, the only explanation that makes sense to them – that they can cope with – is that sinister, bad, evil people arranged some kind of fraud."[125] American political writer Dana Milbank, writing for the Washington Post, describes the Obama citizenship theories of Bob Schulz (chairman of the We the People Foundation, which in 2008 publicly challenged Obama's citizenship[126]) as "hysteria".[127] Colorado elector Camilla Auger, responding to lobbying of members of the state's electoral college, commented: "I was concerned that there are that many nutty people in the country making depressing, absurd allegations. There are so many problems in the country right now, we need to work together."[76]
Some commentators have asserted that racism is a factor motivating the promotion of Obama citizenship conspiracy theories.[128] [129] J. Richard Cohen, the President of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors hate groups and extremism, wrote an e-mail to supporters in July 2009 declaring: "This conspiracy theory was concocted by an anti-Semite and circulated by racist extremists who cannot accept the fact that a black man has been elected president."[130]
Neil Abercrombie
After taking office as Governor of Hawaii in December 2010, Neil Abercrombie announced plans to use the office to discredit the conspiracy theories surrounding Obama's birth. Abercombie has personal reasons for addressing the issue, since he had been Barack Obama, Sr.'s teaching assistant at the University of Hawaii, and knew both Obama Sr. and his wife, Ann Dunham, at the time of Obama Jr.'s birth. As the leader of the state, he also feels obligated to fight the conspiracy theories, which imply that people born in Hawaii are less American than those born in the contiguous United States.[3] He said on January 18, 2011, that the birth certificate issue is "not all just political agenda ... [and] has a political implication for 2012 that we simply cannot have", adding that there is a record of the birth in the State Archives which he wants to use.[131]
Before being elected governor, Abercombie was a member of the United States House of Representatives, where he sponsored a bill recognizing the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's statehood. The bill included language declaring Hawaii to be the birthplace of President Obama.[132]
In late January 2011, Abercrombie abandoned his efforts to release additional birth records because privacy laws barred him from doing so without Obama's consent.[4][5]
Eligibility litigation
Numerous individuals and groups have filed state or federal lawsuits seeking to have Obama disqualified from standing or being confirmed for the Presidency of the United States, or to compel him to release additional documentation relating to his citizenship.[133] By mid-December 2008, at least 17 lawsuits had been filed challenging Obama's eligibility in states including North Carolina,[134] Ohio,[135] Pennsylvania,[136] Hawaii,[137] Connecticut,[138] New Jersey, Texas and Washington.[137][139] No such suit had resulted in the grant of any relief to the plaintiffs by any court.
A major obstacle to such citizen suits has been lack of standing, as the only plaintiff who was a presidential candidate or presidential elector was Alan Keyes. The importance of the doctrine of standing was explained by Judge R. Barclay Surrick of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in dismissing one suit. He noted that one of the principal aims of the doctrine is to prevent courts from deciding questions "where the harm is too vague." This was especially true for a presidential election, where a disgruntled voter who suffered no individual harm "would have us derail the democratic process by invalidating a candidate for whom millions of people voted and who underwent excessive vetting during what was one of the most hotly contested presidential primary in living memory."[140]
Joseph Farah said via his World Net Daily publication that Obama has decided "to spend sums estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid releasing a state birth certificate that would put to rest all of the questions."[141] Farah's WorldNetDaily has since upped the claimed expenditure to $1.7 million, on the basis of the Obama presidential campaign paying out that much since the election to the law firm of Perkins Coie. However, as Mother Jones magazine has pointed out, the campaign has had to employ lawyers to wind down its post-election operations and meet campaign finance law requirements.[142] At least one attorney representing Obama in the litigation has stated that he is working without pay.[143] Other attorneys interviewed by Mother Jones have stated that the "birther" lawsuits have been so weak that they have been easily resolved with "extremely minimal" monetary costs.[142]
Federal courts
Berg v. Obama
On August 21, 2008, Pennsylvania attorney Philip J. Berg, a Democrat[144] and former deputy state attorney general, filed a complaint alleging that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, and was therefore a citizen of Kenya or possibly Indonesia, where he lived as a child.[145][146][147] He alleged that the "Certification of Live Birth" on Obama's website is a forgery.[148] U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick dismissed the complaint in October 2008, finding that Berg lacked standing to bring the case and that his attempts to gain standing to pursue his claim were "frivolous and not worthy of discussion."[144][149]
Bypassing the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Berg filed a petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment in the United States Supreme Court. On December 10, 2008, the Supreme Court denied Berg's request for an injunction against the seating of the Electoral College, scheduled for December 15.[150] On December 15, 2008, the petitioner refiled the application for injunction.[151] Two days later, Berg's appeal was denied without comment by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.[147] Berg's previously denied request for an injunction was refiled with Justice Antonin Scalia on December 18, 2008.[151] On January 12, the Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari. The application for stay addressed to Justice Scalia and referred to the Court was also summarily denied on January 21, 2009.[151]
On November 12, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling that Berg lacked standing.[152]
Kerchner v. Obama
Attorney Mario Apuzzo, on behalf of Charles Kerchner and other plaintiffs, sued Obama, the U.S. Congress, Dick Cheney, and Nancy Pelosi in January 2009 alleging Obama was ineligible to be president, and that Congress failed to verify Obama's ineligibility. A federal district court in New Jersey dismissed the suit, ruling the plaintiffs lacked standing. On July 3, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, citing Berg v. Obama, affirmed the dismissal, and ordered Apuzzo to show cause why he should not be sanctioned for initiating a frivolous lawsuit.[153] Apuzzo's subsequent request for a hearing was denied, but the order to show cause was discharged.[154][155] On November 29, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court declined, without comment, to hear the case.[156]
Barnett v. Obama
On the afternoon of January 20, 2009, Orly Taitz filed a lawsuit in federal court, Alan Keyes et al v. Barack H. Obama et al against Obama, with Wiley Drake as one of the named parties.[157] On July 13, 2009, the presiding judge dismissed the case without prejudice on technical grounds,[158] and on July 14, 2009, Taitz refiled a "First Amended Complaint" Captain Pamela Barnett v. Barack Hussein Obama[159] on behalf of Alan Keyes, Wiley Drake, Cynthia Davis, Gail Lightfoot, several other local politicians, and various armed service members. Taitz sought a declaratory judgment that Obama is ineligible for office and an injunction to void his actions and appointments as President.[160]
Two of the plaintiffs, Markham Robinson and Wiley S Drake, subsequently attempted to dismiss their attorney, Orly Taitz, who refused to sign their substitution-of-attorney documents and instead filed to dismiss the two of them as plaintiffs in the case. On September 8, 2009, Judge David O. Carter denied the dismissal of Drake and Robinson as plaintiffs, and granted their motion to substitute Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation as counsel for them, refused to dismiss Magistrate Judge Arthur Nakazato from the case, and set a tentative trial date for January 26, 2010.[161]
At a hearing on October 5, 2009, Carter considered the defendants' Motion to Dismiss and declined to rule from the bench, saying that he would take the matter under advisement.[162] On October 7, 2009, he released a Minute Order finalizing the previously tentative dates for summary judgment motions and trial,[163] and on October 29, 2009, he dismissed the case.[164] The case is currently pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[165]
Hollister v. Soetoro
On March 5, 2009, a lawsuit filed by Philip Berg on behalf of Gregory S. Hollister, a retired Air Force colonel, against Barack Obama (referenced as "Barry Soetoro", the name given at the time of his enrollment in an Indonesian elementary school). The suit was dismissed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The presiding judge, James Robertson, said the case was a waste of the court's time, calling Berg and another lawyer "agents provocateurs" and their local counsel, John Hemenway, "a foot soldier in their crusade." He ordered Hemenway to show cause why he should not pay the legal fees for Obama's attorney as a penalty for filing a complaint "for an improper purpose such as to harass".[166] The district court ultimately reprimanded Hemenway for his actions, and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the dismissal of the case and Hemenway's reprimand.[153] On January 18, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court declined, without comment, to hear the case.[167]
Cook v. Good
On February 1, 2009, Stefan F. Cook, a Major in the United States Army Reserve, contacted Taitz via e-mail, asking to be part of her lawsuit. On May 8, he volunteered to serve for one year in Afghanistan beginning on July 15, 2009.[168] The Army accepted his offer and ordered him to report on that date.[168] On July 8, however, he filed suit, with Taitz as his lawyer, seeking a temporary restraining order and status as a conscientious objector, arguing that his deployment orders were invalid because Obama was not a natural-born U.S. citizen, and therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.[169] His orders were thereupon revoked; an Army spokesperson stated, "A reserve soldier who volunteers for an active duty tour may ask for a revocation of orders up until the day he is scheduled to report for active duty."[168] Accordingly, Cook's case was dismissed as moot on July 16.[170][171]
In the lawsuit, captioned Stefan Frederick Cook v. Wanda L. Good and filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, Cook asserted that he "would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President's command. ... simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties."[169] In April, before Cook volunteered for deployment to Afghanistan, he had been included in Taitz's list of people she said she represented as plaintiffs, in a letter raising the citizenship issue.[172] A retired Army major general and an active reserve US Air Force lieutenant colonel subsequently joined the Georgia case as plaintiffs alongside Cook. Cook's deployment orders were canceled, and a government spokesman explained, "The Commanding General of SOCCENT (U.S. Special Operations Central Command) has determined that he does not want the services of Major Cook, and has revoked his deployment orders."[106] An Army CENTCOM spokesman rejected as false claims that the revocation validated Cook's claims: "This in no way validates any of the outlandish claims made by Maj. Cook or his attorney. The idea that this validates those charges about the president's fitness for office is simply false."[173]
After the case was filed, Taitz alleged that Cook had been terminated from his civilian job with a defense contractor, after the situation at his company had become "nutty and crazy".[174]
Cook received significant media coverage on July 16, 2009, from Fox News's Sean Hannity.[168][175][176][177][178] Hannity said in his second of two reports:
We told you Tuesday about an Army reserve soldier who challenged his deployment orders on the grounds that President Obama has not proven he is a U.S. citizen. Major Stefan Frederick Cook, who was supposed to deploy to Afghanistan in the coming days, has had his orders revoked. According to his lawyer, "They just said 'order revoked.' No explanation. No reasons. Just revoked." Major Cook and his lawyer expressed joy at this outcome and took it as an admission on the part of the military that the president is not in fact a legitimate citizen by birth.[176][177]
Hannity was criticized for publicizing the "birthers" movement.[177][178] News Hounds wrote:
Fox News had added legitimacy to the irrational and baseless conspiracy-theorist "birthers" who continue to insist, despite evidence to the contrary, that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and [is] thus an illegitimate president. One such effort came from Sean Hannity, reporting on a soldier challenging his deployment to Afghanistan on the grounds that Obama is not eligible to be president. Hannity had failed to note in his report the availability of Obama's birth certificate and how the birther claims have been completely investigated and debunked. Hannity gave an update to the Afghanistan story last night (7/15/09) and took it a step further by suggesting, along with the plaintiff, that the subsequent revocation of the soldiers [sic] deployment orders indicated that his allegations were proved true. But Hannity omitted key details that point to a scam by the soldier. ... Had Hannity bothered to do the simplest of Google searches, he would have also uncovered this key piece of information from that day's Georgia Ledger-Enquirer [sic] newspaper.... So, Maj. Cook filed a request to serve the Commander-in-Chief in Afghanistan on May 8, well after Obama had assumed the presidency, but now, about two months later, is claiming that Obama is not qualified to be president. And instead of going through the administrative process to revoke his orders, which would seem to be a pro forma matter, he sued in federal court.
After the lawsuit was reported in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, the newspaper reported receiving "the highest volume of traffic ever by a single story in the history of ledger-enquirer.com, including written threats against the newspaper", with nearly half a million new readers and hundreds of e-mails. The threats prompted an increase in security around the courthouse where Cook's case was heard, as well as precautions being taken to protect the author of the newspaper's reports on the case. Executive Editor Ben Holden noted: "The chatter had the feel of a righteous cause – almost a religious cause – because some people hate this president."[179]
Rhodes v. Macdonald
In September 2009, Taitz, on behalf of Captain Connie Rhodes, a U.S. Army physician, sought a restraining order to stop Rhodes' forthcoming deployment to Iraq. In the request for a restraining order, Taitz argued the order was illegal since Obama was illegally serving as President. On September 16, federal judge Clay D. Land (the same judge who heard Cook v. Good) rejected the motion and denounced it as frivolous.[180]
Within hours of Land's decision, Taitz told the news site Talking Points Memo that she felt Land's refusal to hear her case was an act of treason.[181] Two days later, she filed a motion to stay Rhodes' deployment pending rehearing of the dismissal order. She repeated her treason allegations against Land and made several other intemperate statements, including claims that Land was aiding and abetting purported aspirations of "dictatorship" by Obama.[182] Land rejected the motion as frivolous and ordered her to show cause why she should not be fined $10,000 for abuse of judicial process.[183]
A few hours later, a letter bearing Rhodes's signature arrived, stating that Taitz filed the motion without her knowledge or consent, asking Land to remove Taitz as her attorney of record in the case, and stating that it was her "plan to file a complaint with the California State Bar due to [Taitz's] reprehensible and unprofessional actions."[184] On September 26, 2009, Taitz filed a motion with the court seeking to withdraw as counsel for Rhodes, so she could divulge in court "privileged attorney-client communications" since the dismissed Rhodes case "is now a quasi-criminal prosecution of the undersigned attorney, for the purpose of punishment."[185]
On October 13, 2009, Judge Clay Land ordered "Counsel Orly Taitz ... to pay $20,000 to the United States, through the Middle District of Georgia Clerk's Office, within thirty days of the date of this Order as a sanction for her misconduct in violation of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure." Land's decision stated:
The Court finds that counsel's conduct was willful and not merely negligent. It demonstrates bad faith on her part. As an attorney, she is deemed to have known better. She owed a duty to follow the rules and to respect the Court. Counsel's pattern of conduct conclusively establishes that she did not mistakenly violate a provision of law. She knowingly violated Rule 11. Her response to the Court's show cause order is breathtaking in its arrogance and borders on delusional. She expresses no contrition or regret regarding her misconduct. To the contrary, she continues her baseless attacks on the Court.[186]
Upon learning of Land's ruling, Taitz said she would appeal the sanction, declaring that Judge Land was "scared to go against the regime" of the "oppressive" Obama administration, and that the sanction was an attempt to "intimidate" her.[187] On March 15, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the sanctions against Taitz.[188] On January 10, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court declined, without comment, to hear the case.[189]
State courts
Martin v. Lingle
On October 17, 2008, another lawsuit was filed in a state circuit court of Hawaii[42] by Andy Martin, who was earlier declared by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to be a "notoriously vexatious and vindictive litigator who has long abused the American legal system", and who uses lawsuits as "a cruel and effective weapon against his enemies."[190]
Martin's lawsuit sought to order the state to release a copy of Sen. Obama's long-form birth certificate.[42] The short-form birth certificate that the Obama campaign posted online states his place of birth as Honolulu, Hawaii.[42] Martin's lawsuit claimed that because Martin "strives for factual accuracy and attempts to conduct thorough research", he should have a copy of Obama's birth certificate from the state and not a certificate "posted on a Web site". Under Hawaii law, only the person whom the record is concerned with, or a spouse, parents, descendant or someone with a common ancestor, or someone acting on behalf of such a person can obtain a copy of a vital record.
The court denied Martin's petition, saying that Martin lacked "a direct and tangible interest in the record."[191] The court cited Martin's lack of legal standing to obtain another person's birth document.[192]
Donofrio v. Wells
In October 2008, Leo Donofrio, an attorney from New Jersey, filed suit to challenge the eligibility of Obama, Republican presidential candidate John McCain (see details here) and the Socialist Workers Party candidate Roger Calero.[8] Donofrio asserted that all three candidates were ineligible: Obama due to having dual U.S. and British nationality at birth (the latter via Obama's father), McCain due to being born in the Panama Canal Zone, and Calero due to allegedly still having Nicaraguan citizenship.[58]
Donofrio was not among those who claimed Obama might have been born outside Hawaii.[193] Also, Donofrio did not challenge the fact that Obama is a U.S. citizen and instead challenged only whether Obama is a natural-born citizen.[194]
The case was referred to the Supreme Court by Justice Clarence Thomas. When the case reached the United States Supreme Court on December 8, 2008, the Court declined without comment to hear the case.[58]
Wrotnowski v. Bysiewicz
On October 31, 2008, Greenwich resident and health-food-store owner Cort Wrotnowski filed a suit in the Connecticut Supreme Court challenging the authenticity of presidential candidate Obama's Hawaii birth certificate. The suit was dismissed after initial hearings.[195]
Wrotnowski appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on November 25,[196] contending that the British citizenship of Obama's father made the president-elect ineligible to assume office. Leo Donofrio, whose earlier case against Obama's eligibility had been turned down, assisted Wrotnowski's Supreme Court appeal.[197] The request for stay or injunction was denied without comment on December 15, 2008.[196][198] Thomas Goldstein, who has argued numerous cases before the court and covers Supreme Court cases, commented that "The law has always been understood to be, if you are born here, you're a natural born citizen. And that is particularly true in this case, when you have a U.S. citizen parent like Barack Obama's mother".[198]
Keyes v. Bowen
Alan Keyes and Markham Robinson, chairman of the American Independent Party and a California candidate for president elector, filed a lawsuit on November 14, 2008, requesting that Obama provide documentation that he is a natural born citizen of the United States.[199][200][201][202] Keyes also said in an interview that he would not be in favor of amending this requirement of the Constitution.[203] Keyes asserts that statements by Obama's paternal step-grandmother "raise doubts as to whether Barack Obama is in fact a natural born U.S. citizen, eligible to be president."[70][204][205]
California Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny sustained, without leave to amend, Secretary Bowen's and Obama's demurrers on Keyes' petition for writ of mandate and granted Obama's motion to quash the subpoena. Keyes was found not to be entitled to the records he sought, thereby declaring the case moot.[206][207] The California Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal on October 25, 2010.[208] The California Supreme Court declined, without comment, to review the case on February 2, 2011.[209]
Ankeny v. Governor of the State of Indiana
In December 2008, Steve Ankeny and Bill Kruse filed a "Petition for Extraordinary Writ of Prohibition" against the Governor of Indiana to block "any popular votes for Barack Obama and Joe Biden for the appointment as Chief Electors [sic]." A hearing was held, and on March 16, 2009, the Governor's motion to dismiss was granted. The Plaintiffs appealed the ruling to the Indiana Court of Appeals, which upheld it on November 12, 2009.[210]
The appellate decision addressed the question of whether Obama's eligibility was affected by his father's lack of U.S. citizenship, saying that "[b]ased upon the language of Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 and the guidance provided by Wong Kim Ark, we conclude that persons born within the borders of the United States are “natural born Citizens” for Article II, Section 1 purposes, regardless of the citizenship of their parents."[211]
Indictment attempts using "citizen grand juries"
Some campaigners, led by Georgia activist Carl Swensson, have sought to "finally expose the conspiracy behind President Obama's birth certificate" by forming what they term "citizen grand juries" to indict Obama.[212] The "grand juries" are based on the Fifth Amendment's premise that "no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury". Although the activists managed to hand out copies of "indictments" to Congressional staff,[213] the courts have not regarded the "citizen grand juries" favorably. In June 2009, a group of 172 campaigners declared themselves to be a "Super American Grand Jury" and voted to charge Obama with treason and accused him of not being a US citizen.[214] Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the "indictment" on July 2 and declared: "[T]here is no authority under the Rules of Procedure or in the statutes of the United States for this court to accept [a presentment]... The individuals who have made this presentment were not convened by this court to sit as a grand jury nor have they been selected at random from a fair cross section of this district. Any self-styled indictment or presentment issued by such a group has no force under the Constitution or laws of the United States."[215]
Political impact
Although claims about Obama's citizenship were evaluated in 2008 by the McCain Campaign and ultimately rejected,[216] they became a significant issue among sections of the political right. By mid-2009, the citizenship issue was one of the hottest and most lucrative sources of fundraising for organizations on the right that raise funds through direct mail and telemarketing. Online petition sites such as that of Alan Keyes, who has been collecting signatures on the birth certificate issue, are a major source for generating mailing lists of movement conservatives.[217] The web site WorldNetDaily published more than 200 articles on the subject by July 2009[218] and has sold billboards, bumper stickers and postcards asking "Where's the birth certificate?" and similar slogans in an effort which has "already raised tens of thousands of dollars."[219]
Moderate conservatives have found themselves "bombarded with birther stuff".[217] Protesters at the Tea Party protests in 2009 carried signs about the birth certificate issue,[220] some of which were recommended by protest organizers.[217] In an incident that attracted widespread media coverage, moderate Republican Representative Michael Castle was booed and heckled during a July 2009 town hall meeting in Georgetown, Delaware, when he told a woman protesting about Obama's birth certificate: "if you’re referring to the president there, he is a citizen of the United States."[221] NBC Nightly News reported that other members of Congress often hear the issue too; an anonymous congressman told the program that he was reluctant to advertise his own town hall meetings for fear of this issue drowning out everything else.[222]
Here is what the Republican party needs to do: we have to say that's crazy. So I'm here to tell you that those who think the president was born somewhere other than Hawaii you’re crazy ... let's knock this crap off and talk about the real differences we have.
Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, October 1, 2009 [223]
A number of Republican legislators have, proposed legislation and constitutional amendments at the state and federal levels to address issues raised by the birth certificate campaigners. Some Republicans are said to "want the issue to go away", seeing it as a distraction. Democratic commentators have criticized the reluctance of some Republicans to distance themselves from the proponents of the conspiracy theories, suggesting that "Republican officials are reluctant to denounce the birthers for fear of alienating an energetic part of their party's base".[80] NBC News' "First Read" team commented: "the real story in all of this is that Republican Party has a HUGE problem with its base right now."[224] Republican National Committee Chairman, Michael Steele released a statement through his spokesperson saying, "Chairman Steele believes that this is an unnecessary distraction and believes that the president is a U.S. citizen."[225]
Conservative Joel Pollak, writing for The American Thinker, has stated that the reason the "Birther theory" has caught on particularly among conservatives, is the weakness of the Republican opposition, stating:
In the absence of strong Republican leadership, some find the Birther theory a compelling, if desperate, solution. Yet it is ultimately a self-destructive one — not just because it is almost certainly false, but because it contradicts the essential spirit of the conservative movement.[226]
Political analyst Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic and CBS News, suggests that the birther phenomenon goes to the heart of the dilemma now facing the Republican Party, positing that
Republican presidential candidates need to figure out how to diffuse angry birthers who are bound to show up and demand their attention. If they give credence to the birthers, they're not only advancing ignorance but also betraying the narrowness of their base. If they dismiss this growing movement, they might drive birthers to find more extreme candidates, which will fragment a Republican political coalition.[227]
Political analyst Andrew Sullivan, writing in The Sunday Times, stated
The demographics tell the basic story: a black man is president and a large majority of white southerners cannot accept that, even in 2009. They grasp conspiracy theories to wish Obama — and the America he represents — away. Since white southerners comprise an increasing proportion of the 22% of Americans who still describe themselves as Republican, the GOP can neither dismiss the crankery nor move past it. The fringe defines what’s left of the Republican centre.[228]
Opinion surveys
In October 2008, the Orange County Register's OC Political Pulse poll found that a third of responding Republicans believed that Obama had been born outside the United States.[229] As a result of the widespread publicity given to the citizenship controversy, 60% of respondents in an Ohio State University survey carried out in November 2008 had heard of the issue. However, only 10% believed the claims that Obama was not a citizen.[230]
An opinion poll carried out for Daily Kos by Research 2000 in July 2009 found that 77% of Americans believed that Obama was born in the U.S., while 11% didn't, and 12% were unsure. However, Republicans and Southerners were far more likely than other political or demographic groups to doubt that Obama was born in the United States. 58% of Republicans either believed that Obama was not born in the U.S. (28%) or were not sure (30%), with 42% believing that he was. An overwhelming majority of Democrats (93%) and independents (83%) believed that he was born in the U.S. Support for the belief that Obama was born outside the U.S. was strongest in the South, where only 47% of those polled believed he was born in the U.S., compared with an average of 90% of residents of the Northeast, Midwest and West.[231] A marked racial disparity in the South was also apparent. The Politico's congressional reporter, Glenn Thrush, commented that the Research 2000 poll "explains why Republicans, including Roy Blunt, are playing footsie with the Birther fringe".[231] Writing on National Journal's Pollster.com blog, Brendan Nyhan observed that the poll "suggests that the encouragement of the birth certificate myth by conservative pundits and Republican politicians has begun to activate the GOP base on this issue".[232]
A Public Policy Polling survey carried out in August 2009 found that only 32% of Republicans in Virginia thought that Obama was born in the U.S., 41% thought he was foreign-born and the remaining 27% were unsure.[233] In Utah, an August 2009 poll carried out for the Deseret News and KSL-TV found that 67% of Utahns accepted the evidence that Obama was born in the U.S. The poll found that those who do not believe that Obama was born in the United States, or do not know, are predominantly middle-aged, lower-income Republican-leaning individuals without a college education.[234]
A Pew Research Center poll found that 80% of Americans had heard about the Obama citizenship claims by August 2009. The poll found a significant partisan divide in views of the news coverage, with 58% of Democrats saying that the allegations had received too much attention from the media. Republicans were more inclined to say that the allegations had received too little attention, with 39% expressing this view against only 26% saying that the controversy had received too much attention.[235]
In a Harris Poll online survey of 2,320 adults conducted in March 2010, 25% of the respondents said they believed that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president".[236] In a July 2010 CNN poll of adult Americans, 16% said had doubts that Obama was born in the United States, and a further 11% were certain that he was not.[13]
Dilemma for Republicans seeking public office
Because a large percentage of Republicans believe Obama is not eligible to hold public office (see Opinion surveys section), candidates running in Republican primaries in 2010 had "to walk the fine line of humoring conspiracy-minded supporters without explicitly questioning Obama's legitimacy himself."[237] In one case, Ken Buck, the Republican candidate for Colorado's U.S. Senate seat, attempted to run as a Tea Party candidate, but he was recorded telling a campaign staffer to "tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I'm on the camera".[237]
In another case, Tracey Mann, a candidate running for Congress from Kansas, stated at a candidate forum that Obama "should show his birth certificate to really resolve this thing one way or another." In a radio interview he answered a question as "I think the president of the United States needs to come forth with his papers and show everyone that he's an American citizen and put this issue to bed once and for all." In response, on July 21, 2010, The Hutchinson News, a local paper in Hutchinson, Kansas, withdrew their endorsement of Tracey Mann. In withdrawing their endorsement, the newspaper said that Mann "questions the citizenship of President Barack Obama despite evidence that is irrefutable to most objective, rational people – including a birth certificate released by the Hawaii secretary of state and birth announcements printed in Honolulu's two major newspapers."[238] Mann responded that he was "disappointed and mystified by the Hutchinson News' decision to withdraw their endorsement over a misunderstanding of [his] position", as he is not "interested in pursuing this issue in Congress", and he has "never had any interest in spending any time on the matter".[239] Mann was subsequently defeated in the Republican primary by state senator Tim Huelskamp.[240]
In Georgia, however, Representative Nathan Deal won the Republican primary for state governor despite being the first congressman to officially request to see Obama's birth certificate. In November 2009, Deal replied to a question about whether he believed that Obama "is a native-born American citizen who is eligible to serve as president" with a statement that "I am joining several of my colleagues in the House in writing a letter to the President asking that he release a copy of his birth certificate so we can have an answer to this question."[241] Contrasting the differing fates of Deal and former Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney, who lost her primary after endorsing 9/11 conspiracy theories, David Weigel of Slate noted: "Dipping a toe into the birtherism fever swamp didn't stop Deal from winning a statewide primary."[242]
On September 11, 2010, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich stated that Obama could only be understood by people who "understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior".[243] While Gingrich did not define what constitutes "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior", White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs accused Gingrich of "trying to appeal to the fringe of people who don't think the president was born in this country." Gibbs then went on to say "You would normally expect better of somebody who held the position of Speaker of the House but look it is political season and most people will say anything and Newt Gingrich does that on a genuinely, on a regular basis."[244]
As of December 30, 2010, Andrew Martin, the self-proclaimed "King of Birthers", has announced himself as a candidate for President of the United States.[245] Martin intends to run for the GOP nomination.
Legislative initiatives and responses
The controversy over Obama's citizenship and eligibility for the presidency has prompted a number of Republican state and federal legislators to propose legislation aimed at requiring future presidential candidates to release copies of their birth certificates. Some legislators also lent their support to birth certificate-related litigation against Obama, joining as co-plaintiffs. The Hawaii State legislature went in the opposite direction, to limit the lengths that proponents can go in pursuit of this issue, as the pursuits have drained resources from the state.[246]
State legislatures
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Republican state Representative Mike Ritze proposed a bill in December 2008, requiring any candidate for public office in Oklahoma to show proof of citizenship. Ritze declared that he "does not believe Obama submitted an authentic copy of his birth certificate".[247] He also unsuccessfully approached Oklahoma Republican Senators Tom Coburn and James Inhofe to persuade them to mount a challenge to Obama's confirmation by Congress.[248] The bill, House Bill 1329, was criticized by The Norman Transcript newspaper as "an outright attempt to embarrass President Barack Obama whose own citizenship was questioned, mostly by those pajama guerrillas trolling on the Internet".[249] The bill gained a 23–20 vote in favor, but failed to meet the 25-vote threshold required to pass.[250]
In February 2011, similar legislation was reintroduced in the Oklahoma state senate.[251]
Tennessee
In Tennessee, four Republican state Representatives—Stacey Campfield, Glen Casada, Frank S. Niceley and Eric H. Swafford—announced in February 2009 that they would be joining a legal action to force Obama to release his birth certificate and prove his citizenship. Casada, the Tennessee House Republican caucus chairman, said that he believes Obama has further proof of eligibility, and would like him to make it available: "Yes, people may say, you're just chasing some conspiracy theory ... [but] it's a simple act on his part to just do, and we're done—move on." The alternative newspaper Nashville Scene described Swafford as joining a "wacky legal action" and quoted Tennessee house Democrat Larry Miller as saying: "What is the mentality of these kind of people who continuously make these kind of goofy statements? It's embarrassing." Attorney Orly Taitz of California said she planned to file the suit, representing the Defend Our Freedoms Foundation.[252][253]
Legislation proposed in January 2011 would require anyone running for elected office to furnish a birth certificate before being declared an eligible candidate."[254]
Missouri
Fifteen Republican members of the Missouri House of Representatives sponsored an amendment to the Missouri Constitution in March 2009 that would require "candidates who are required by the Constitution of the United States to be natural born citizens" to provide a birth certificate to the Missouri Secretary of State to confirm their eligibility. A certificate of live birth would not be accepted. Failure to comply would result in the candidate being deemed ineligible to stand. The only political offices to be affected would be the President and Vice President, which are the only two positions for which there is a specific constitutional citizenship requirement. The proposed amendment is part of a "voter’s bill of rights", which would serve "as a defense against corruption, fraud, and tyranny". Political commentators interpreted the proposal as being "aimed at advancing the claims of the fringe movement that doubts President Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president".[255][256] The proposed amendment, House Joint Resolution No. 34, was subsequently withdrawn.[257]
A number of Missouri Republican politicians have continued to support claims and litigation on the citizenship issue. State Representatives Cynthia L. Davis, Timothy W. Jones and Casey Guernsey have committed to participating as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in Missouri challenging Obama's citizenship.[258] State Representative Edgar G. H. Emery told reporters in July 2009 that he "questions Obama’s citizenship and ... believes his alleged lack of a legitimate birth certificate ignores the Constitution."[259]
In January 2011, Republican State Representative Lyle Rowland introduced legislation that would require "proof of identity and proof of United States citizenship" for all presidential and vice-presidential candidates."[260]
Arizona
On April 19, 2010, the Arizona House of Representatives voted in favor of a rider to require presidential candidates "to submit documents proving they meet the constitutional requirements to be president".[261] If enacted, the law would give the Arizona Secretary of State the power to omit a candidate's name on the state ballot if there is "reasonable cause" to believe that the documents are not adequate proof of the requirements for office. The rider passed the Arizona House of Representatives on a 31-29 vote, with only Republicans voting in favor and some Republicans joining with Democrats to oppose.[262] The bill then went to the Arizona State Senate, which declined to vote on the bill before the April 2010 end of legislative session, the deadline for the bill's passage.[263][264][265]
In reaction to the proposed legislation, The Arizona Republic referred to it as a "nutty birther bill" that would make Arizona seem to be a place where "any crackpot whim can be enshrined in law".[266] Arizona Republican State Representative Cecil Ash, who supported the bill, appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° to discuss the bill. Ash stated that he believed President Obama was an American citizen, but there has been "a lot of controversy over the issue". Cooper then likened the people who believe there is a birth certificate controversy to people who believe the moon is made of cheese and asked Ash if he knew the moon was not made of cheese without investigation. Ash responded in the affirmative.[267][268]
In January 2011, similar legislation again was introduced in the Arizona House of Representatives.[269] In February 2011, a companion bill introduced in the Arizona state senate failed to be voted out of a committee.[270]
Hawaii
In May 2010, Hawaii enacted a law allowing the state to ignore requests for information if deemed "duplicative or substantially similar" to a prior query.[271][272][273][274][275]
In January 2011, Hawaii state representative Rida Cabanilla introduced legislation allowing the Hawaii Department of Health to provide upon request a copy of the birth certificate of a "Person of civic prominence" (that is, a candidate or officeholder for which United States citizenship is required), and to charge the requesting party a surcharge of $100.[276]
Texas
On November 16, 2010, Texas state representative Leo Berman introduced legislation requiring any candidate for president or vice president running in Texas to submit to the Texas Secretary of State an "original birth certificate indicating that the person is a natural-born United States citizen.” In introducing the bill, Berman said that the "bill is necessary because we have a president whom the American people don’t know whether he was born in Kenya or some other place.” If signed into law, the bill would take effect September 1, 2011, about 6 months ahead of the Texas presidential primaries for the 2012 presidential election.[277]
By inserting the word "original" into the bill, Berman addressed concerns by conspiracy theorists that other bills that do not contain that word are "flawed". His bill would therefore specifically disallow the use of the reproduced certificate that Obama has used since June 2008 as evidence. The legality of such a bill is unknown, as reproduced certificates are generally accepted by government agencies as proof of birth.[278]
Indiana
In January 2011, Indiana state senator Mike Delph introduced legislation requiring presidential candidates to file a certified copy of a birth certificate along with additional documentation to be on the Indiana ballot.[279]
Montana
In January 2011, Montana state representative Bob Wagner introduced legislation requiring all candidates for federal office file affidavits with the Montana secretary of state verifying that they are qualified; presidential candidates would be required to provide the state with a valid copy of their birth certificates.[280]
Connecticut
In January 2011, Connecticut state Sen. Michael McLachlan introduced legislation that would mandate presidential and vice presidential candidates to provide their birth certificates for their names to be placed on the ballot.[281]
Nebraska
Proposed legislation introduced in January 2011 would require a presidential or vice presidential candidate to provide proof of birth that includes the names of the candidate's parents, and proof that the parents were United States citizens at the time of the candidate's birth; the candidate would also have to swear of affirm, "I was born a citizen of the United States of America and was subject exclusively to the jurisdiction of the United States of America, owing allegiance to no other country at the time of my birth. On the day I was born, both my birth mother and birth father were citizens of the United States of America."[282]
Congress
Some activists lobbied members of Congress to reject the Electoral College vote and block Obama's election as president in its sitting on January 8, 2009, to certify and tally the results of the election. Two Republican members of the House of Representatives, John Linder and Ron Paul, were heavily lobbied by activists who believed that the two lawmakers would be more willing than other members of Congress to raise objections to Obama's confirmation.[248] The lobbying was unsuccessful and Congress unanimously declared Obama to be the winner of the election.[9]
In March 2009, Representative Bill Posey, a newly elected Republican from Florida's 15th congressional district, introduced a bill, H.R. 1503, in the U.S. House of Representatives. It would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require candidates for the Presidency "to include with the [campaign] committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate" plus supporting documentation.[283] The bill did not initially have any co-sponsors and was introduced without the Republican leadership being informed.[284] Florida Today, the newspaper serving his constituency, commented that the bill "stems from fringe opponents of President Barack Obama who, during the 2008 election campaign, questioned whether Obama was born in Hawaii," but added that Posey's office "does not question Obama's citizenship."[285] Posey explained his motivation as being to "prevent something like this [controversy] from happening in the future" by requiring "the birth certificate up front and take [the issue] off the table". His initiative was strongly criticized by Florida Democrats, who accused Posey of trying to "fan the rumors on the extreme fringe of the Republican Party" and "pandering to the right wing".[286] The satirist Stephen Colbert also mocked Posey for not addressing rumors that he was "part alligator";[287] Posey responded by commenting that there was "no reason to say that I'm the illegitimate grandson of an alligator". He also stated that there was now "no reason to question" that Obama is a U.S. citizen.[288] Despite the criticism, Posey's bill has gained the support of twelve Republican co-sponsors - Representatives John R. Carter, Kenny Marchant, Louie Gohmert, John Culberson, Randy Neugebauer, Mike Conaway and Ted Poe (all from Texas), Rep. John Campbell (California), Rep. Bob Goodlatte (Virginia), Rep. Dan Burton (Indiana), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee), and Rep. Trent Franks (Arizona).[289][290]
Republican Senator Tom Coburn (Oklahoma) also stated that he would "likely support it" if the bill reached the Senate, saying that Obama "meets the constitutional requirement to be president," and that "It is each state's responsibility to determine the eligibility of those running for federal office."[291]
On July 27, the House of Representatives passed a resolution commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's statehood. The resolution, containing language recognizing Hawaii as President Obama's birth state, passed by a vote of 378 to zero.[292] Some of the cosponsors of the Posey bill, namely Campbell, Carter and Marchant, did not cast a vote.[293]
On January 6, 2011, the United States Constitution was read on the floor of the House of Representatives. As the section regarding the president's qualifications was being read, a spectator sitting in the gallery shouted, "Except Obama, except Obama. Help us Jesus." She was arrested for disrupting Congress.[294]
Official response
A common claim among those arguing that President Obama was not born in Hawaii is that all doubt would be settled if Obama released his "long form" birth certificate. However, commentators noted that doing so would be disadvantageous to Obama. First, it would encourage speculation as to why it took so long to release the document. Second, caving in to his political adversaries' demands would embolden them by giving them a victory. Finally, it would open the door to demands for other personal records unrelated to his birth certificate.[295] Despite these concerns, both Obama and his press secretary did eventually respond to reporters' questions about the issue.
Press secretary's response
At the end of the May 27, 2009, press briefing, WorldNetDaily reporter Lester Kinsolving asked about Obama's birth certificate. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs replied, "It's on the Internet", to which Kinsolving responded "No, no, no – the long form listing his hospital and physician." Gibbs responded as follows:
Lester, this question in many ways continues to astound me. The state of Hawaii provided a copy with the seal of the President's birth. I know there are apparently at least 400,000 people (laughter) that continue to doubt the existence of and the certification by the state of Hawaii of the President's birth there, but it's on the Internet because we put it on the Internet for each of those 400,000 to download.[296]
At a July 27, 2009, press briefing, radio talk show host Bill Press asked Gibbs if there was anything he could say to make the issue go away. Gibbs answered, "No. I mean, the God's honest truth is no," because "nothing will assuage" those who continue to pursue what he called "made-up, fictional nonsense" despite the evidence that Obama had already provided.[297][298]
On August 6, 2009, Gibbs commented, "You couldn't sell this script in Hollywood," and summarized the contentions that he considered "totally crazy":
A pregnant woman leaves her home to go overseas to have a child — who there’s not a passport for — so is in cahoots with someone…to smuggle that child, that previously doesn’t exist on a government roll somewhere back into the country and has the amazing foresight to place birth announcements in the Hawaii newspapers? All while this is transpiring in cahoots with those in the border, all so some kid named Barack Obama could run for President 46 and a half years later.[299]
Barack Obama's response
Barack Obama directly addressed the issue on August 29, 2010, in an interview with Brian Williams. Williams asked Obama about the fact that a fifth of the American people do not believe that he is either American born or a Christian. Obama responded that "there is a mechanism, a network of misinformation that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly". He then added "I can't spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead."[300]
See also
- Barack Obama religion conspiracy theories
- Birthright citizenship in the United States of America
- Natural born citizen of the United States: Presidential candidates whose eligibility was questioned
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link). Contains detailed examination of document, including the certificate number, which is 151 1961 - 010641. - ^ Obama, Barack (1995). Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Crown Publishers. pp. 44–45. ISBN 978-0-307-38341-9.
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{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Kornhaber 2009, p. 4
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{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ a b United States Court of Appeals,Third Circuit : KERCHNER v. OBAMA II, caselaw.findlaw.com
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- ^ "Order No. 09-4209". scribd.com, from United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. July 22, 2010.
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{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ Bob Allen (2009-07-14). "Wiley Drake wins round in legal battle challenging Obama's presidency". Associated Baptist Press.
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- ^ Motion for stay of Connie Rhodes' deployment
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- ^ Hayes, Christopher (October 25, 2007). "The New Right-Wing Smear Machine". The Nation. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
A 1993 opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in Atlanta, described these lawsuits as 'a cruel and effective weapon against his enemies,' and called Martin a 'notoriously vexatious and vindictive litigator who has long abused the American legal system.'
- ^ The Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii. (October 22, 2008). Andy Martin, Petitioner, vs. Linda Lingle, Governor, State of Hawaii; Dr. Chiyome Fukino, in her capacity as Director of the Department of Health, State of Hawaii; and the Honorable Bert I. Ayabe, Judge of the Circuit Court of the First Circuit, State of Hawaii, respondents. www.state.hi.us. Retrieved October 24, 2008.
- ^ Dooley, Jim (November 21, 2008). "Obama certificate lawsuit dismissed: Judge says Net author Martin had no standing to get birth document, Honolulu Advertiser.[dead link]
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- ^ "Judge dismisses Obama birth certificate challenge". New York Post. November 3, 2008.
- ^ a b "Docket for 08A469". Supreme Court of the United States. December 9, 2008. Retrieved December 10, 2008.[dead link]
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- ^ "Alan Keyes Doubts Obama's Citizenship", Courthouse News Service. November 17, 2008.
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- ^ "Alan Keyes, AIP leaders sue in CA court to obtain Obama citizenship proof"[dead link], The Sacramento Union (California). November 15, 2008.
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- ^ Koppelman, Alex (December 2008). "Sex, lies and creatively edited interviews with Sarah Obama". Salon.com. Retrieved December 31, 2008.
- ^ Full audio of the interview (relevant portion 4:20 – 8:20).
- ^ Ruling: Case No. 34-2008-80000096-CU-WM-GDS, Superior Court of California, Sacramento County[dead link]
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- ^ Misc. No. 2009-0346 in Re SUPER AMERICAN GRAND JURY, Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth, July 2.
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- ^ a b c Bernstein, David S. (July 22, 2009). "Birthers In The Mainstream". The Boston Phoenix.
- ^ Weigel, David (July 21, 2009). "Your Facts Are Useless on Me". The Washington Independent.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Lewis, Errol (July 23, 2009). "Obama's critics launch the birth of a nutty nation". New York Daily News. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
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- ^ Video of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham speaking before The Atlantics First Draft of History conference, October 1, 2009
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- ^ Sargent, Greg (July 29, 2009). "Michael Steele Blasts Birtherism As 'Unnecessary Distraction,' Says Obama Is 'U.S. Citizen'", The Plum Line (blog).
- ^ Pollak, Joel B. (July 29, 2009).The Political Alchemy of Birtherism. The American Thinker.
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- ^ "Rumour that Barack Obama is Muslim was believed by 22pc". Agence France-Presse. January 29, 2009.
- ^ a b Thrush, Glenn (July 30, 2009). "58 percent of GOP not sure/doubt Obama born in US". Politico.com. Retrieved July 30, 2009.
- ^ Nyhan, Brendan (July 30, 2009). "Disturbing poll on beliefs about Obama's birth". National Journal/Pollster.com. Retrieved July 30, 2009.
- ^ Goddard, Taegan (August 3, 2009). "Just 32% of Virginia Republicans Think Obama is a Citizen". Political Wire. Congressional Quarterly. Retrieved August 4, 2009.
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- ^ "'Wingnuts' and President Obama", Harris Polls, March 24, 2010 Retrieved July 18, 2010
- ^ a b Amira, Dan (July 26, 2010). "Senate Tea-Party Candidate Accidentally Reveals What He Thinks of Birthers". New York Magazine.
- ^ "U.S. House News withdraws endorsement of Tracey Mann for 'birther' views". The Hutchinson News. July 21, 2010.
- ^ "Kansas Congressional Candidate Just Can't Stop Accidentally Being a Birther". New York Magazine. July 23, 2010.
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- ^ Weigel, David (August 11, 2010). "Nathan Deal: Exhibit A of Why Birtherism Isn't a Career Killer". Slate.
- ^ Costa, Robert (September 12, 2010). "Gingrich: Obama's 'Kenyan, anti-colonial' worldview". National Review Online.
- ^ Stephanopoulos, George (September 13, 2010). "Will Boehner's 'Blink' Make A Difference on Tax Cuts? Not Before Lame-Duck". ABC News.
- ^ Dwyer, Devin (December 30th, 2010). "Birther King Andy Martin Seeks GOP Presidential Nomination - ABC News". ABC News.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Smith, Ben (May 13, 2010). "Hawaii's 'birther bill'". Politico.
- ^ McNutt, Michael (December 12, 2008). "Law sought to prove candidate citizenship in Oklahoma". The Oklahoman. Oklahoma City. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
- ^ a b Weigel, David (January 8, 2009). "GOP Senators Give Hope to Anti-Obama Activists". Washington Independent. Retrieved January 9, 2009.
- ^ "Oklahoma's department of frivolous". The Norman Transcript. Norman, Oklahoma. February 14, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2009.
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- ^ Daly, Kyle (February 17, 2011). "Birther bills flood state houses across USA, somehow avoiding Colorado". Colorado Independent. Retrieved February 17, 2011.
- ^ Smith, Ben (March 4, 2009). "Missouri Republicans push birth certificate questions to oppose 'tyranny'". Politico.com. Retrieved March 6, 2009.
- ^ "House Joint Resolution No. 34, 95th General Assembly". Missouri House of Representatives. Retrieved March 6, 2009.
- ^ "House Joint Resolution No. 34". Retrieved July 6, 2009.
- ^ Noble, Jason (July 1, 2009). "Orly Taitz questions Obama's citizenship in Jeff City; receives support from 5 state lawmakers". Prime Buzz blog. Kansas City Star. Retrieved July 6, 2009.[dead link]
- ^ Messenger, Tony (July 1, 2009). "Missouri Republicans continue to question Obama citizenship". Political Fix blog. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
- ^ "Missouri Republicans Still Concerned With Obama's Citizenship". Fired Up! Missouri. January 21, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
- ^ "Ariz House: Check Obama's Citizenship". April 19, 2010.
- ^ "Arizona birthers: No clue, but plenty of company". The Washington Post. April 21, 2010.
- ^ "Arizona 'birther bill' won't get Senate vote". The Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. Associated Press. April 29, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2010.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|separator=ignored (help) - ^ "Welcome to the Arizona State Legislature". Phoenix, Arizona: Arizona Legislature. Retrieved June 7, 2010.
The 49th Legislature, 2nd Regular Session Adjourned Sine Die on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 11:07 p.m.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|separator=ignored (help) - ^ "Bill Status Overview – SB1024". Phoenix, Arizona: Arizona Legislature. Retrieved July 26, 2010.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|separator=ignored (help) - ^ "Lawmakers, bury the 'birther bill'". Editorial. Arizona Republic. April 21, 2010.
- ^ "Birthers Reemerge; Will Ash Cloud Threat Continue?". Anderson Cooper. CNN. April 21, 2010.
- ^ "Anderson Cooper Confronts Birther Legislator". Jason Linkins. Huffington Post. April 22, 2010.
- ^ "'Birther Bill' back in Arizona; Rep. Judy Burges pitches birth certificate legislation again". Michael Sheridan. Daily News. January 26, 2011.
- ^ Fischer, Howard (February 14, 2011). "Presidential candidates won't need to show birth certificate for Arizona ballot". East Valley Tribune. Capitol Media Services. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
- ^ "Hawaii considering law to ignore 'birthers'". msnbc.com. Associated Press. March 17, 2010. Retrieved February 9, 2011.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|separator=ignored (help) - ^ Niesse, Mark (March 17, 2010). "Hawaii Mulls Law to Ignore Obama 'Birthers'". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved February 9, 2011.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|separator=ignored (help) - ^ Sheridan, Michael (May 13, 2010). "Aloha 'Birthers': Hawaii law lets state ignore repeated demands for Obama's birth certificate". Daily News. New York. Retrieved February 9, 2011.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|separator=ignored (help) - ^ "Hawaii State Legislature 2010 Regular Session SB2937 SD1 HD1 CD1".
- ^ "New Hawaii law shuns Obama birth document requests". KHON-TV. Associated Press. May 12, 2010.
- ^ Niesse, Mark (January 27, 2011). "Hawaii lawmakers want release of Obama birth info". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Associated Press. Retrieved February 9, 2011.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|separator=ignored (help) - ^ Enrique Rangel; Terry Greenberg (November 17, 2010). "State representatives file birth certificate bill filed for presidential candidates". Lubbock Avalanche Journal. Retrieved 2010-11-28.
- ^ Weigel, David (November 17, 2010). "Texas Republican Files Birther Bill". Slate. Retrieved 2010-11-28.
- ^ "Social issues return to agenda". Niki Kelly. Journal Gazette. January 9, 2011.
{{cite news}}: Text "http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110109/NEWS07/301099914" ignored (help) - ^ "Montana Lawmaker Introduces 'Birther' Bill". Kellyn Brown. Flathead Beacon. January 26, 2011.
{{cite news}}: Text "http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/montana_lawmaker_introduces_birther_bill/21581/" ignored (help) - ^ Davis, Stacy (January 31, 2011). "McLachlan sponsors birth certificate bill in Hartford". The News-Times. Danbury, Connecticut: Hearst Corporation. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|separator=ignored (help) - ^ Weigel, David (February 3, 2011). "The Trouble with Birther Bills". Slate. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|separator=ignored (help) - ^ Smith, Ben (March 13, 2009). "Birther bill hits Congress". Politico.com. Retrieved March 13, 2009.
- ^ Preston, Mark (March 13, 2009). "Republican wants WH candidates to prove citizenship". Political Ticker blog. CNN. Retrieved March 13, 2009.
- ^ Kim Eun Kyung (March 14, 2009). "Posey to president hopefuls: Prove it". Florida Today. Retrieved March 15, 2009.[dead link]
- ^ Matthews, Mark (mdy). "Posey: Future presidential candidates should show their birth certificates; won't say whether he believes Obama is a US citizen". Orlando Sentinel. Florida.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Colbert, Stephen (March 19, 2009). "Bill Posey Alligator Rumors". The Colbert Report. Retrieved June 23, 2009.
- ^ Matthews, Mark K. (April 9, 2009). "New Rep. Bill Posey gains his footing after rough start". The Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
- ^ Bill Summary & Status: 111th Congress (2009 - 2010): H.R.1503: Cosponsors
- ^ thomas.loc.govthomas.loc.gov.
- ^ Smith, Ben (June 19, 2009). "Coburn backing Birther bill". Politico.com. Retrieved June 23, 2009.
- ^ Stein, Sam (July 27, 2009). "Resolution Proclaiming Hawaii Obama's Birthplace Passes House Unanimously". The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 27, 2009.
- ^ "Final vote results for roll call 647". Clerk of the House of Representatives. July 27, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2009.
- ^ "'Birther' arrested during Constitution reading". Politico. Arlington County, Virginia: Allbritton Communications Company. 2011-01-06. Archived from the original on 2011-01-06,. Retrieved 2011-01-06.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|archivedate=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - ^ Koppelman, Alex (August 5, 2009). "Salon's handy-dandy guide to refuting the Birthers". Salon.com. Retrieved August 5, 2009.
Myth #8
- ^ Official transcript of the May 27, 2009, WhiteHouse press briefing.
- ^ Press briefing by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, www.whitehouse.gov (July 27, 2009). Retrieved July 28, 2009.
- ^ Tapper, Jake (July 27, 2009). "Gibbs: Birth Certificate Controversy is "Made-Up Fictional Nonsense"". ABC News.
- ^ Tapper, Jake (August 6, 2009). "Gibbs on Birthers' Theories: 'You Couldn't Sell This Script in Hollywood'". ABC News. Retrieved August 11, 2009.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Thrush, Glenn (August 29, 2010). "President Obama blasts lies, disinformation". Politico.com.
External links
- Barack Obama's vital records FAQ, Hawaii State Department of Health
- Analysis
- The Truth About Obama's Birth Certificate by FactCheck.org
- False Rumor about Obama's Birth Certificate from Snopes.com
- Obama's Birth Certificate: Final Chapter from PolitiFact
- Email Hoax: Occidental College Transcripts Reveal Foreign Citizenship from Urban Legends
- Editorials
- Culture of Conspiracy: The Birthers by The Politico
- Anti-Obama Lunatics Living in Denial by The Daily Nation
- Archive of Pro-Conspiracy Reports from WorldNetDaily
- 11 Most Paranoid Obama Conspiracy Theories - slideshow by The Huffington Post
- The former British police officer who wants to bring down Barack Obama by The Guardian
- American Grotesque by John Jeremiah Sullivan, GQ Magazine Cover Story, January 2010
- Multimedia
- The Daily Show: "The Born Identity" July 22, 2009
- Gordon Liddy on MSNBC's Hardball With Chris Matthews July 23, 2009
- The Colbert Report: "Womb Raiders" Part 1 and Part 2 with Orly Taitz July 28, 2009
- The Stupid Virus by Current TV's SuperNews!, November 14, 2009
