The weekend began happily for me. I knocked off work an hour early since I’d earned an hour of comp time on Wednesday. I felt like dining out, which I don’t do much anymore, so I drove to my favorite Chinese restaurant, only to discover it wasn’t open for dinner until more than a half hour later. So I got back in my car and drove to my favorite Mexican restaurant. On the way over there and while eating my dinner, I started mulling over in my mind some of the deeper implications of the absurd harassment lawsuits that are being continually being filed about President Obama’s "eligibility."
If Obama had to resign the Presidency because some court insisted he had never proved he was born in this country, that would only be the beginning of the damage this ruling would do. Such a ruling would be a threat to millions of natural born American citizens.
Still here? Good. Now, I’ve always known I was born in Nashville, Tennessee on a cold February night in 1950. However, the only birth certificate I have ever had to document this is one that I ordered from the State of Tennessee in the 1990’s when I needed it to for a Caribbean vacation I was planning. I do not have, and have never had, the original birth certificate that was prepared by the attending physician when I was born. I never thought I needed it.
Much of the "birther" controversy centers on Obama’s Certification of Live Birth, which he posted on the web, and the authenticity of which has been verified by FactCheck.org.
See the link here.
Originally people said it was fake. Later, they claimed that fake or not, it proved nothing for various reasons. Many people have insisted that "all Obama has to do" is produce some sort of other documentation, the "original copy from the vault," the "long form," or the form "that was filled out by attending physician at his birth."
What if Obama doesn’t have the original from when he was born? Does that prove anything sinister? I would say no. I don’t have mine. Millions of Americans don’t have theirs, for all kinds of reasons. A fire, a tornado, parents who just weren’t that good at keep track of paperwork. These are the reasons why the States will provide you authenticated copy of your birth certificate. If Obama’s COLB is not adequate to prove he was a natural-born American citizen, then neither does mine prove that for me.
Try to imagine a Federal Court hearing one of these ludicrous suits, ruling that Obama’s COLB is not adequate proof of his birth in this country, and demanding that he provide further evidence. By this act, the legal validity of millions of Americans’ birthright citizenship would be thrown into doubt. How would I prove I was an American citizen? Since both my parents are dead, they could not testify that I was born here, and I don’t have naturalization papers. I could be classified as an illegal alien and deported.
I'm not indulging in paranoia or delusions of grandeur here. I'm just using myself as an example.
Fortunately, Federal judges have without exception thrown out all the suits. However, these lawsuits aren’t merely frivolous and stupid. Whatever the intentions of the plaintiffs, their actions strike at the rights of millions of Americans.
By the way, I do think the natural born citizenship requirement for Presidents should be repealed by Constitutional amendment. It is a foolish anachronism in our time, adopted only because many at the Constitutional Convention distrusted Alexander Hamilton, who was born in the British Virgin Islands.