Supreme Court Declines to Hear Obama Citizenship Suit

The Supreme Court this morning declined to hear an emergency appeal from Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, NJ. Donofrio claimed that President-elect Barack Obama is not qualified for the presidency because he is not a "natural-born" citizen.

The Supreme Court has rejected an emergency appeal from a retired lawyer in New Jersey who questioned Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, because he had dual British-American citizenship at birth. The justices without comment on earlier today refused to intervene in the November 4 presidential election,dismissing the claims of Leo Donofrio, a resident of East Brunswick, New Jersey. Right-wing blogs were outraged last week after Justice David H. Souter denied Donofrio's petition for an injunction, and left-leaning blogs expected trouble when Justice Clarence Thomas referred the matter to the full court for consideration. In his appeal, Donofrio claims that because Obama's father was a Kenyan-born British subject, the president-elect does meet the Constitution's requirement that the president be a "natural born citizen" of the United States. Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. His mother was a U.S. citizen, born in the United States. Many legal analysts questioned Donofrio's argument." A pretty reputable organization according to the mainstream media and citizen journalists has conducted an investigation that has not silenced critics. Donofrio, to his credit, also contended in the suit that Republican nominee John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero also were not natural-born citizens and should have been kept off the ballot. There are two other cases at the Supreme Court, neither of which has been scheduled for consideration. Philip Berg of Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania alleges the president-elect was actually born in Kenya. Berg argues that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama has said and Hawaii officials confirm. Berg claims Hawaii officials will not let him see Obama's original birth certificate, although following numerous blog postings over the citizenship question, the Obama campaign posted a copy of it online this summer. Those supporting Berg do not believe a birth certificate Obama's campaign has produced. Alternately, Berg argues that Obama may have renounced his citizenship as a boy in Indonesia, where he lived for a time with his mother and stepfather. The appeal rejected Monday is Donofrio v. Wells (08A407). There are others still at lower court levels.