By Juliana McLeod
Last week, while surfing the Internet for anything that would distract me from homework, a US News & World Report article caught my eye. Skimming through the piece, I was introduced to Larry Klayman, a public interest lawyer who has spent his professional life suing big-name people.
Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney and Mark Zuckerberg are among those who have fallen victim to the lawsuits. Recently, Klayman is being discussed for his success in a trial against the NSA last November over phone records, according to the article.
In early October, Klayman tendered a request, insisting Obama be deported from the US on the grounds that the president submitted a false birth certificate as proof of his American citizenship, the article explained.
The petition, which US News & World Report said was sent to three authorities in the Department of Homeland Security on Oct. 2, asks the government to look into Obama’s citizenship. If this is not done, Klayman threatens to turn to his long-used strategy and sue these authorities.
All this talk of Obama and the legitimacy of his birth certificate sounds familiar. Probably because Klayman is opening a wound that has been badly bandaged for three years.
In 2011, Obama released his long-form birth certificate in an effort to quiet opposition that felt the president was not born in the US. The certificate, which is easily accessible on the White House’s official website, states that Obama was born in Honolulu.
Not that this actually quieted the opposition. I made the mistake of thinking that those who believed Obama’s birth certificate was fake had moved on, but the complaint is still in the air, thanks to its reawakening by Klayman.
While being born outside of the United States would have disqualified Obama as a candidate for president, no proof that he was born outside of the US exists. The“natural-born citizen” requirement is unique to the position of the president. While citizenship is constitutionally required in order to hold other federal elected positions, such as seats in Congress, naturalized citizenship is considered adequate. Regardless of the legal jargon, the facts remain: Obama is a US citizen.
In addition, Obama has also been dealing with assertions that his time overseas discredits any possibility that he could be an American citizen. This was not seen solely with his Kenya-born father, but in speculation floating around the country over Obama’s time living in Indonesia. Somehow, spending four years of his childhood in Southeast Asia conjured up skepticism of Obama’s US citizenship.
The US News & World Report reminds the reader that the Hawaii state government justifies Obama’s US-located birth, on top of his birth certificate, which also verifies it.
The evidence that proves otherwise? None. There is nothing that leads us to believe Obama is not a US citizen.
This “Where’s Waldo?” game with Obama’s birth certificate will remain a strategy of Obama’s opposition until the moment he is out of office.
Perhaps an amendment should be made to the constitution, demanding candidates for presidency carry copies of their birth certificates. You never know when someone will make you feel like an alien in your own country.
Photo courtesy Creative Commons.
