No. 11 signs onto demand for eligibility proof
WND
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
 Rep. Louie Gohmert |
A former judge now serving in Congress has agreed to cosponsor a bill demanding that future presidential candidates provide proof that they are eligible to hold the office.
Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas has become the 11th supporter of the bill proposed by Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla.
The provisions of H.R. 1503 are straightforward:
"To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of President to include with the committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate, together with such other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution."
It also provides:
"Congress finds that under … the Constitution of the United States, in order to be eligible to serve as President, an individual must be a natural born citizen of the United States who has attained the age of 35 years and has been a resident within the United States for at least 14 years."The sponsors' goal is to have the bill become effective for the 2012 presidential election, and it now is pending in a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Other cosponsors are Reps. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas; Dan Burton, R-Ind.; Ted Poe, R-Texas; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; John Campbell, R-Calif.; John R. Carter, R-Texas; John Culberson, R-Texas; Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; and Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas.
A participant at a forum on a political website noted "average citizens have to have a copy of our birth certificate just to apply for a passport, but the president of the United States doesn't have to show theirs??? This doesn't make sense at all."
Besides the support growing in the U.S. House, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has said he's in favor of both state and federal demands that future presidential candidates have a formal procedure to document their qualifications.
"The bill requires any federal candidates' campaign committee filing with the Federal Election Commission to produce a copy of the candidate's birth certificate," Coburn has written. "If the bill makes it to the Senate, I will likely support it."
WND earlier reported when Posey talked about his idea on a radio program.
"The last election is over," Posey said in the interview. "I don't think that outcome is going to change. Personally, I think it's futile to go there, but looking toward the future I think it would be reckless if we do not do everything we could to eliminate problems like that in the future. And that's why I filed the bill."
His comments came on the Andrea Shea King Show.
"I don't think a Supreme Court would remove a president from office if they heard the case. But ... we should make a good faith effort to make sure that things in the future are as they should be," he said.
The question that prompted the legislative effort now also is being raised on billboards nationwide.
"Where's The Birth Certificate?" billboard in Pennsylvania
The billboard campaign follows an ongoing petition campaign launched several months ago by WND Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah.
They are intended to raise public awareness of the fact that Obama has never released the standard "long-form" birth certificate that would show which hospital he was born in, the attending physician and establish that he truly was born in Hawaii, as his autobiography maintains.
The "Certification of Live Birth" posted online and widely touted as "Obama's birth certificate" does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same "short-form" document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true "long-form" birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.
Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a "natural born citizen," no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama's claim to a Hawaiian birth.
Obama's birth certificate is not the only document at issue. WND has reported documentation for Obama not yet available includes his kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, files from his years as an Illinois state senator, Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and his adoption records.
WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "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."
Some of the lawsuits question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Complicating the situation is Obama's decision to spend sums estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid releasing a state birth certificate that would put to rest all of the questions.
