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Court to weigh question about Obama citizenship

Unlikely decision could deny him presidency

By Tom Ramstack | Friday, December 5, 2008

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UPDATED:

The Supreme Court plans to meet Friday to decide whether to hear a case that could determine whether President-elect Barack Obama ever becomes the nation's president.

Justice Clarence Thomas picked up the petition to hear New Jersey attorney Leo Donofrio's lawsuit after it was denied by Justice David H. Souter. Justice Thomas referred it to the full court, which decided to distribute the case for the judges' conference.

The decision to put the case on Friday's docket resulted from more than a dozen lawsuits challenging Mr. Obama's right to be president based on his citizenship at birth. The issue preoccupied many conservative bloggers in the weeks before the Nov. 4 election.

Some legal analysts say the lawsuits have little chance of success. The Supreme Court rarely grants the kind of court orders - or stays - sought by Mr. Donofrio.

"Nothing in what we've seen from the court so far suggests any likelihood the court is actually going to take the cases," said Eugene Volokh, constitutional law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law.

Nevertheless, for the lawsuit even to make it to the docket raises the possibility of an unprecedented case going before the Supreme Court . At least four of the court's nine judges must approve before the case is heard.

Mr. Donofrio originally sued New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells, seeking a court order to stop the Nov. 4 presidential election. When that was denied, he amended his complaint to stop the Electoral College from certifying Mr. Obama as the winning candidate when it meets Dec. 15.

Unlike many of the lawsuits regarding Mr. Obama's citizenship - which claim he was born on foreign soil - Mr. Donofrio's case concedes that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii as he claims. Mr. Donofrio contends, however, that Mr. Obama is not a "natural born citizen," as Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution requires.

"Don´t be distracted by the birth certificate and Indonesia issues," Mr. Donofrio said in a statement on the Citizen Wells Web site. "They are irrelevant to Senator Obama´s ineligibility to be president.