The Chicago Tribune has reported that even if Obama was born in another country (e.g., Kenya), subsequent acts of Congress would retroactively qualify Obama for American citizenship based upon his mother's American citizenship.
The article below does not address the issue in Hawaiian state law of the difference between a "birth certificate" and a separate document called a "certificate of live birth."
From the article below:
"If this becomes an issue in a post-election eligibility challenge, expect a likely sticking point to be the legal definition in 1961 of how parents could be called U.S. citizens for this purpose, Volokh said. At the time Obama was born, the law stated that a person would be considered a "natural born citizen" if either parent was a citizen who had lived at least 10 years in the U.S., including five years after the age of 14 in other words, 19."
"Dunham was three months shy of her 19th birthday when Obama was born. But subsequent acts of Congress relaxed the requirement to five years in the U.S., including just two years after the age of 14, meaning Dunham could have been 16 and still qualified even if Obama was born in another country, Volokh said. Congress made the law retroactive to 1952, doubly covering Obama."
"Any legal challenge would have to argue that Congress can't make someone retroactively a citizen at birth, and prove Obama was born outside of the U.S. after all."
Further unresolved questions however involve the impact of the fact of Barack Obama's childhood Indonesian schooling, and whether he was adopted by an Indonesian, whether he had an Indonesian passport, and whether he was at one time an Indonesian citizen. According to the World Net Daily article below, Indonesian citizenship earlier in Barack Obama's life would not necessarily disqualify him from being eligible to run for the office of U.S. president.
Was young Obama Indonesian citizen?
www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72656
"Was Sen. Barack Obama a citizen of Indonesia at any point in his life?"
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."
Psalm 9:17, KJB
"But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it."
Psalm 94:15, KJB
No King but King Jesus! (Yeshua Messiah)
Declarations and Evidences of Christian Faith in America’s Colonial Charters, State Constitutions, and other Historical Documents during over 375 Years of American History: 1606 to 1982
www.christianlifeandliberty.net/NoKingbutKingJesus.doc
Steve Lefemine
November 3, 2008
__________________________________________________
Obama birth certificate rumor debunked
www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-birth-certificate-30-oct30,0,1742172.story
By James Janega Tribune reporter
October 30, 2008
A persistent rumor circulated by opponents of Barack Obama in recent weeks questions the authenticity of his birth certificate from Hawaii, despite the fact that the Obama campaign debunked the rumor in June.
In the Tribune's political blog "The Swamp" last week, reporter Mark Silva produced a copy of Obama's birth certificate and addressed the birthplaces of both presidential candidates.
Sen. John McCain, Silva wrote, "was born to American parents, his father serving as a submariner in the U.S. Navy at the Coco Solo base in the Panama Canal Zone when and where young John Sidney McCain III was born. Barack Hussein Obama II -- and yes, he actually has joked that he got his middle name from people who never thought he'd be running for president -- was born in Hawaii, in 1961, and has a birth certificate to show for it."
Conservative critics have suggested that Obama may have been born outside the U.S. and is not a "natural born citizen" eligible for the presidency. But they present no evidence that he was born anywhere other than Hawaii.
In June, the Obama campaign released an electronic copy of the certificate bearing the seal of the State of Hawaii Department of Health and showing that Barack Hussein Obama II was born to mother Stanley Ann Dunham in Honolulu at 7:24 p.m. on Aug. 4, 1961.
Contacted Wednesday, Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo cited Hawaii state privacy laws and guidance from the state attorney general in saying she was not permitted to confirm the authenticity of the certificate released by the Obama campaign.
But she said it appeared similar to other Hawaii birth certificates.
"It looks exactly the same as my own birth certificate," Okubo said.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said Wednesday that the document was authentic.
The issue of whether Obama is a "natural born citizen"a citizen at birthwas raised in a June 10 article on the conservative Web site World Net Daily.
Article II of the U.S. Constitution says, "No Person except a natural born citizen, or a Citizen of the United States ... shall be eligible to the Office of President." Acts of Congress in 1790 and 1795 clarify that "the children of citizens of the United States ... shall be considered as natural born citizens."
Republican candidate John McCain faced, and overcame, similar questions because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone while his Navy father was stationed there.
Hawaii was a state in 1961, when Obama was born. Any person born in the U.S. automatically is a "natural born citizen," said University of California Los Angeles law professor Eugene Volokh.
Even if a person is born outside the United States, courts have ruled any child born to at least one U.S. citizen is a U.S. citizen, Volokh said. Stanley Ann Dunham would have counted even if Obama's Kenyan father did not.
If this becomes an issue in a post-election eligibility challenge, expect a likely sticking point to be the legal definition in 1961 of how parents could be called U.S. citizens for this purpose, Volokh said. At the time Obama was born, the law stated that a person would be considered a "natural born citizen" if either parent was a citizen who had lived at least 10 years in the U.S., including five years after the age of 14in other words, 19.
Dunham was three months shy of her 19th birthday when Obama was born. But subsequent acts of Congress relaxed the requirement to five years in the U.S., including just two years after the age of 14, meaning Dunham could have been 16 and still qualified even if Obama was born in another country, Volokh said. Congress made the law retroactive to 1952, doubly covering Obama.
Any legal challenge would have to argue that Congress can't make someone retroactively a citizen at birth, and prove Obama was born outside of the U.S. after all.
jjanega@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
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