Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Is it over?

Alan Keyes has filed a lawsuit. Philip Berg's Writ of Certiorari, filed in the U.S. Supreme Court is awaiting a response from Obama and the DNC, which is due by Dec. 1. If you can't read the entire thing, at least read Berg's Writ through the Table of Contents.

Aside from the specific questions about Obama's citizenship, there are the larger questions: Who insures that candidates are eligible to run for president? Who has the right to challenge their qualifications and where? How much does our constitution matter?

Interesting stuff.

HT: Die Schreiben von Schreiber

4 comments:

sarahlaughed said...

This is intensely interesting...and frightening. Do you know what the status of this lawsuit is at this point besides that a response is due by Dec. 1st.

Anonymous said...

I saw that the case was dismissed by Surrick because he felt the voter had no right to sue contesting presidential eligibility unless they were given permission by Congress?

With a shaky decision like that and the incredible ignorance about our founding documents AND the ire of Obama supporters to not have their guy as President because of a silly little document like the Constitution....I think Obama will be inaugurated.
No matter what.

Styria said...

The Constitution repeatedly gives Congress the right to resolve issues on succession or election to the presidency, as a whole by law and the House in particular for choosing a President. Failure to qualify is in the 20th Amendment. I think the Supreme Court will rule that it's Congress's problem to determine if someone is constitutionally qualified.

Obama's not really the President elect until the Electoral College votes. Watch out for things like the not-uncommon protest vote from a DC Elector (over the DC statehood/'taxation without representation' issue). If Obama is disqualified after the Electors vote, the Democrats might have an actual dogcatcher they can constitutionally substitute for him. They could also 'fail' to choose a President if they don't like the other choices besides McCain and let the position default to Biden on March 4th (12th Amend.).

RPW said...

I'd heard there was a previous case that was dismissed, but not the one by Keyes.