News

By Kathleen Gilbert

November 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Sacramento Supreme Court petition filed on behalf of Alan Keyes and others has asked the Secretary of State to withhold the state’s 55 electoral votes from the December Electoral College tally until President-Elect Barack Obama proves he is eligible to take office.

The court document joins a host of litigation questioning Obama’s eligibility in as many as 15 states, with confirmed cases in Ohio, Connecticut, Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Hawaii, and unconfirmed reports from Utah, Wyoming, Florida, New York, North Carolina, Texas, California and Virginia, according to WorldNetDaily. 

All the cases reported to have failed were dismissed due to the plaintiff’s lack of standing, without the court actually investigating the complaint. 

However, as Keyes was on the November ballot as the American Independent Party presidential candidate, his is the first case in which the plaintiff is a candidate who lost the presidency, perhaps illegitimately, to Obama.  This may mean that Keyes’ case will be the first in which the plaintiff is deemed to have sufficient standing, leading the court to investigate the complaint instead of dismissing it.

“Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the Office of President of the United States of America and, thereby, his election declared void, Petitioners, as well as other Americans, will suffer irreparable harm in that an usurper will be sitting as the President of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal,” Keyes wrote to the Sacramento Supreme Court.

“An unprecedented and looming constitutional crisis awaits if a President elected by the popular vote and the electoral vote does not constitutionally qualify to serve in that capacity,” the court document continued.

In response to questions about why the suit was being filed, Keyes commented, “I and others are concerned that this issue be properly investigated and decided before Senator Obama takes office.  Otherwise there will be a serious doubt as to the legitimacy of his tenure.

“I hope the issue can be quickly clarified so that the new President can take office under no shadow of doubt,” concluded Keyes. “This will be good for him and for the nation.”

According to the United States Constitution, only a natural-born American citizen is eligible for the office of the presidency.  Questions and rumors about President-elect Obama’s birthplace and legal citizenship gained steam in the weeks leading up to the election, and continue to fly as Obama refuses to release his original birth certificate and medical records to the media (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08102712.html). 

The Obama camp dismisses the charges as “garbage.”  But without the demanded proof, purported evidence that Obama was born in Kenya or else lost his natural-born citizenship in Indonesia continue to gain notoriety on the internet, including a Youtube video of Obama’s Kenyan grandmother saying the Illinois senator is native to her Mombosa village. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FqVRWgrNw&eurl=https://blog.barofintegrity.us/2008/11/01/barack-nate-dhalani.aspx?ref=rss)

Obama claims to have been born in Hawaii, and has released an image of a Hawaiian certification of live birth.  This did not satisfy some skeptics, however, who insist the image was forged.

One case, filed by lifelong Democrat Philip J. Berg of Philadelphia, is currently before the Supreme Court.  The defendants, including Obama and the Democratic National Committee, have until December 1st to respond to Berg’s appeal to the Supreme Court.  The district court judge that first heard Berg’s case had told Berg he did not have standing to bring charges.

Berg told LifeSiteNews.com that more court activity across America calling for the withholding of electoral votes until the matter is settled, like Keyes’ petition, is likely. 

Berg says he is very optimistic about his pending case, and says he is certain the Supreme Court will not be able to ignore the issue.  “Our government is based on the U.S. Constitution, we’re asking for the enforcement of certain terms here that are very basic,” he said. 

“I think this is the biggest hoax perpetrated upon the American public in the history of our country, and I really think certain people should end up going to jail,” Berg added.

Berg warned that, if Obama truly is ineligible, and nonetheless inaugurated, there would be “a real constitutional crisis.

“We’d have a nightmare on our hands,” he said.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Case Claiming Obama Ineligible for Presidency Appealed to Supreme Court
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08102712.html