Supreme Court Declines to Hear Donofrio Case

Seriously, I don't think this would have cleared up many of the issues that people are raising. Most of those have to do with where Obama was born. This one had to do with the fact that his father was a British citizen, therefore Obama is a natural born British citizen. However, since his mother was a natural born US citizen, he is also a natural born US citizen. The case concedes that Obama was born in Hawaii, so the Court would have had no reason to examine his so-called "vault birth certificate", so none of those questions would have gone away. Since the largest number of those opposed to Obama's presidential eligibility cite that it hinges on WHERE he was born, those questions would still be there. I don't expect that those people would even be satisfied if the vault certificate were passed from hand to hand to every citizen in the US who wants to see it.

You're probably 100% correct. Obama could turn this nation around and bring us back to the status we once had, and they still will not have any respect for him.

Ok, you tell me, ZephyrSun... who in the DNC checked it out? Did they ever see his birth certificate? If they checked it out, why didn't they know that the certificate on the internet was a fake? What is silly is Obama seems to think it isn't his responsibility to prove his eligibility... that seems to be everyone else's responsibility. And no, if Obama turns out to be a great president, I (for one) will give him credit for it.. In fact, I have already given him credit for decisions I thought were good.

Not true. It states on everyone's passport that there are actions one can take that cause their US citizenship to be revoked... one of which (for example, is joining the military of another nation). But our laws aren't the ones in play here, but those of Indonesia. We recognize dual citizenship, but apparently Indonesia does not. Part of Their requirements for naturalization is that all other national citizenship be renounced. If he was granted citizenship in Indonesia then he couldn't have maintained his US citizenship. Also, if his step father adopted him then there is even legitimate question about his legal name. He was registered for school in Indonesia as Barry Soeto... if Soeto is his legal name then nothing he has signed as "Obama" is legitimate.

The Constitution never says a person has to be born in the US or even on US soil. It says "Natural born citizen"... since McCain was born of two US citizens, in a military hospital, he is a natural born citizen. Obama may or may not have been born in Hawaii... but lets say for argument, he was. Even if his father wasn't a US citizen, he would be a natural born citizen. The problem comes later in his life. There is evidence that he may have been adopted by his step father Lolo Soetoro, and became an Indonesian citizen. He was registered in school as Barry Soetoro, so there is legitimate question about whether or not Obama is his official name. Furthermore, Indonesia doesn't allow dual citizenship, so if he did become a citizen of that nation, his US citizenship would have been revoked. Each of which would make him ineligible to be president according to the requirements of the US Constitution. Why does everyone jump to the stupid "Poor loser" BS. A poor loser is one who loses a fair contest and whines about being beat. If the rules of the game were violated those on the losing end have every right to complain... and if those on the winning side are honest, they will complain too. I don't know if Obama is eligible or not. I know that he won 53% of the popular vote and will most likely be elected by the Electoral College later this month. In that he will have won the election and I have no problem with that in the least. However, if he was never eligible to run in the first place, every honest American should have a problem with him taking the oath of office. If we shrug it off, then the US Constitution means absolutely nothing at all.

Actually, the US has always held that no one can revoke the citizenship of any other person against their will or without their consent. Because of that, the law holds that the actions of a parent do not affect their children's citizenship. In order for Obama's natural born citizenship to have been revoked, he would have had to actively revoke his citizenship himself after he reached adulthood by formally revoking his US citizenship and swearing an oath of citizenship to another country. There is no evidence that he ever did either of those things. In fact, since his father was a British citizen, he held dual citizenship at birth with Britain and the US. His British citizenship became Kenyan citizenship when Kenya was granted its independence, and at that point, he was considered a natural born Kenyan citizen for purposes of Kenyan law, and a natural born US citizen for purposes of US law. According to Kenyan law, his Kenyan citizenship expired on his 21st birthday when he did not take steps to make it permanent. As far as the situations you describe, iriscot, in most cases, children born to a US citizen and a US non-citizen usually have dual citizenship, but there are exceptions. For instance, children born overseas to a US father who is not married to the mother must meet certain conditions in order to be considered a natural born US citizen, while those born to a US mother and non-US father overseas are considered natural born US citizens depending on the mother's physical presence in the United States. One of the challenges to Obama's eligibility hinges on this - IF he was not born in Hawaii. Despite the fact that she was born a US citizen and lived in the US her entire life, Stanley Ann Dunham was about 4 months short of having lived in the US for five years after her 14th birthday at the time of Obama's birth. This requirement was changed in 1986 to make it two years of physical presence in the US after the 14th birthday, but the law doesn't specifically make the two year requirement retroactive.

Total and complete BS!!! Ok, not total and complete because you are right in that this case wasn't about the birth certificate issue. However, it has everything to do with Obama's eligibility to be President of the US. It also IS a case for the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's job is to interpret the Constitution as written. It is their job to read the Constitution and demand it is upheld. If Obama's citizenship is in question, it is The Supreme Court who is SUPPOSED to make sure the question is answered. They are cowards, plain and simple. They have passed the buck so they won't have to put their names to anything here. Piss on em!

The Supreme Court proved they were cowards when they "caved in" to the republicans during the 2000 election. They didn't have guts enough to stand up for what was right then, how can we expect them to stand up for anything in the constitution when the whole bunch of them twist things to suit themselves, not the constitution. They are appointed by the president who is in office at the time there is a vacancy. There will probably be at least 3 new ones appointed in the next few years. Maybe we will get some honest ones then??????

As I said in my response to Zephyr, this case has nothing to do with Obama "proving" his eligibility. It has everything to do with redefining "natural born citizen" to exclude anyone whose father was not a US citizen at their birth. It's not up to the Supreme Court to make new law - it's up to the legislature. If you think that "natural born citizen" is not defined well enough in the law, then lobby your legislators to introduce legislation to set a definition in stone. If your issue is that Barack Obama has not whipped out the Hawaiian vault copy of his birth, this case wouldn't have made him do that - Donofrio conceded that Obama was born in the US. If he was born in the US, then he is a natural born citizen, no matter WHAT his parents were under our current definitions of natural born citizen.

The Senate did the right thing regarding McCain's eligibility, in my opinion, and they should perhaps do something similar for Obama! This is just so ridiculous, it's a case of the people behind this and other lawsuits not being willing or able to accept the fact that Obama won the election fair and square. I think the odds of Obama not meeting the eligibility requirements under any of the various scenarios his detractors have brought up are very small. I have no doubt Obama is a total American in every sense of the word. Something has to be done to make sure we're never faced with this kind of "controversy" again, i.e. it has to be spelled out in the simplest of terms with every possible scenario defined. Annie

Donofrio apparently holds a very narrow view of what "natural born citizen" means - and he's not the only one who challenged McCain's eligibility. In April of this year, the Senate actually passed a resolution stating that it is "the sense of the Senate" that John McCain fulfilled the intent of the framers of the Constitution as a "natural born citizen" even though technically, he was born a year before a law was passed making children born of two citizens in certain US-occupied territories "natural born citizens" meaning that technically - he was NOT a natural born citizen, but the Senate passed a resolution to say he was. The resolution was supported by both Clinton and Obama, btw. http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200804/043008d.html

I fall on the side of the US Constitution on both questions. I see no reason to change the system, but the cowards in the offices need to be held accountable... There are ways to hold them accountable... according to the Constitution.

My real question here deals with how he got elected senator to begin with if he is not a US citizen. Is the requirement not the same for being elected senator? Shouldn't this have been checked out when he was given the job as senator? As much as I would like to see him disqualified and not given the job as president; it is, after all, no big secret that I do not like him and I voted against him, I have to say that I don't think this is really an issue that is going to be pursued any further. Even if it were found out that he is not eligible for the presidency, I don't think anything will be done about it. I surely don't think he will be kicked out of office. There will be too many people crying racism and all sorts of other crap. I don't think anyone in their right mind would actually think they are going to discipline him either way. Voter ignorance got him elected, and now WE THE PEOPLE are stuck with him. I am stuck with him, even though I voted AGAINST him. His ability to mesmerize people with his speeches reminds me of the way Hitler used to do the same thing to people. I just hope I am wrong about him, but I have a feeling that America is in real trouble...

Well as I stated in another discussion, the answer to this is simple...give Obama 24 hours to show his birth certificate (legal and authentic)to the proper authorities. If he does not comply, kick his as$ out and give the job to someone else. The fact that he has not already solved this issue by doing this very thing tells me that he may, in fact, have something to hide...

A friend of mine was stationed in New Zealand during and at the end of WWII, he received a leave and went to Australia for 15 days. He fell in love with an Australian girl and I don't how it happened but she became pregnant. Before coming back to the States he was flown to Australia and married the young lady. After coming back to the States he worked it out to get her to the States. He was discharged since the war was over and they settled down in my home town. They had two sons, the first one being conceived in Australia before they were married, the second son was conceived and in the States. Both were born in the States. Now I've never even considered that Mike might not be a U.S. citizen. How does this affect his citizenship?

Thanks jonesy, then that answers the question. Obama is a United States Citizen and he won the election. It's time now to put this discussion to bed!!!

If both are born in the US they are US citizens. It's automatic. I don't know if they have dual citizenship as I don't know the rules for Australia, especially not at the time.