By Carrie Budoff Brown
The Supreme Court rejected an attempt Monday to declare Barack Obama ineligible to be president. The court turned down a long-shot emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who claimed that Obama could not serve as president because he had dual nationality at birth. Since his mother was an American and his Kenyan father was a British subject, he failed to meet the constitutional standard of being a “natural born citizen,†argued Leo Donofrio of East Bunswick, N.J., in his appeal.
The court denied the request without providing an explanation, which is common practice. Donofrio’s suit was one of a few around the country seeking to nullify the election, but his had a noteworthy case history: It was referred to the high court by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s only African American. The suit filed against New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells contested Obama’s claims to citizenship and therefore to the presidency and initially sought to stay the election. Alan Keyes, who was defeated by Obama in a race for the U.S. Senate in 2004, has filed a similar suit. During the campaign, a copy of Obama’s birth certificate was posted on his website, showing that he was born in Hawaii. A petition to stop the Electoral College from confirming Obama as the next president has been rejected by Justice David Souter. (more) Excerpted from: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16300.html