Wednesday April 21, 2010
Arizona House Passes Amendment Requiring Citizenship Proof of President
By Peter J. Smith
PHOENIX, Arizona, April 21, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Arizona House of Representatives has given preliminary approval to a measure that would require any presidential candidate to prove to the secretary of state that he is a “natural born citizen.” The legislation is aimed at settling any remaining uncertainty that President Barack Obama may not eligible under the U.S. Constitution to run for or hold the office of president.
The House voted 31-22 to add the provision to SB 1024. The House will need to take another vote on the bill itself before sending it back to the Senate for another vote.
Rep. Judy Burges (R-4) added the language, which requires that a candidate demonstrate that he is a “natural born citizen” by having the Secretary of State review the birth certificate itself.
Although both Obama’s campaign and the state of Hawaii have provided a “certificate of live birth” to demonstrate president Obama was born in the United States and thus is constitutionally eligible to serve as president, critics allege that certificate does not go far enough and say that the president needs to reveal the “long form” of his Hawaiian birth certificate, which they say would put to rest any further doubt.
Arizona’s Secretary of State Ken Bennett has criticized the measure, saying that only the U.S. Constitution can determine the requirements by which a candidate is eligible to run for president.
As yet, it remains unclear as to whether the Arizona Senate would approve the legislation and Republican Gov. Jan Brewer has not indicated whether she would sign it into law.
J.D. Hayworth, a former Republican congressman challenging Sen. John McCain for the GOP Senate nomination, has thrown his support for Obama to produce the long form of his birth certificate to allay any remaining doubts over his status as a natural-born citizen.
Both in the run-up and after the 2008 presidential election, numerous cases were filed demanding conclusive proof that Obama is eligible to serve as president.
One case, filed by lifelong Democrat Philip J. Berg of Philadelphia, was filed before the Supreme Court, and then subsequently denied.
Berg told LifeSiteNew.com while the case was ongoing that if Obama truly were ineligible and nonetheless inaugurated, then there would be “a real constitutional crisis.”
“We’d have a nightmare on our hands,” he said.
One recent incident has highlighted the complications that can arise while the issue remains unsettled. Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Terrence Lakin of the U.S. Army currently is facing court martial for disobeying deployment orders to Afghanistan, saying that he is disobeying “illegal orders,” because they come from President Obama. Lakin said in a YouTube video posted last month that he was “inviting [his] own court-martial,” asserting that Obama’s claim to natural born citizenship is still questionable, and would only be resolved by producing the long-form birth certificate.