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Is Barack Eligible to be President?

By Larry Johnson on June 15, 2008 at 10:50 PM in Current Affairs

I must admit I initially thought this was a farfetched question. But there is a significant body of evidence, some circumstantial, that suggests the answer may be “no.” An internet friend (Katherine) has pursued this relentlessly. She sent me the following:

According to the state laws in Hawaii that were in effect at the time of Obama’s birth, a child must be born to “TWO” U.S. Citizen parents (this law was in effect from “December 24, 1952 to November 13, 1986,“ which means it applies to Barack’s birth.

But only Barack’s mom was a U.S. Citizen. Papa Obama was a citizen of Kenya. Well, the Hawaiian law stiplulates that:

…If only one parent was a U.S. Citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least FIVE of which had to be after the age of 16.”

It appears that Obama’s mother was only 18 when Obama was born, which means she was shy of the 21 years of age required by the law. In other words, she was not old enough to qualify her son for automatic U.S. Citizenship. At what point was Barack Obama Jr., son of Barack Obama Sr., recognized by the U.S. Government as an American citizen? When he moved to Indonesia with his mother and step-father in the mid-1960s I am assuming he had a U.S. passport.

There is a law suit in the works. Of that you can be sure. As was noted in an early post today on No Quarter, Barack’s stubbornness on the birth certificate issue is keeping the matter alive. Not a good idea going into the General Election.

I am not a Constitutional scholar (nor is Barack for that matter). The relevant clause of the Constitution stipulates that:

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.

Now, I had always assumed that a naturalized citizen (like Arnold) could not be President. but the clause, “or a citizen of the United States,” seems to open the door for people who become citizens. Any lawyers out there?