Skip navigation

Court won't review Obama's eligibility to serve

Suit claimed Obama was British-born and not a 'natural born' U.S. citizen

Video
  Court won't take Obama citizenship case
Dec. 8: The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take a case challenging Barack Obama, saying he was not a "natural born citizen." NBC's Pete Williams reports.

MSNBC

Video: White House  
  
Obama: Asia trip will be boost to U.S. economy
Nov. 21: In his weekly radio and Internet address, President Obama sounds off about his trip to Asia saying, "I spoke with leaders in every nation I visited about what we can do to sustain this economic recovery and bring back jobs and prosperity for our people."

Follow @msnbc_politics for more news from D.C.

Interactive
Explore a 3-D White House
Check out historical info, photos, and panoramic images.
White House visitor logs
Image: The White House
Public records
Help figure out who has been visiting the White House during the first eight months of the Obama administration.
updated 10:12 a.m. ET Dec. 8, 2008

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.

The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election.

Donofrio says that since Obama had dual nationality at birth — his mother was American and his Kenyan father at the time was a British subject — he cannot possibly be a "natural born citizen," one of the requirements the Constitution lists for eligibility to be president.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here

Donofrio also contends that two other candidates, Republican John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero, also are not natural-born citizens and thus ineligible to be president.

At least one other appeal over Obama's citizenship remains at the court. Philip J. Berg of Lafayette Hill, Pa., argues that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama says and the Hawaii secretary of state has confirmed.

Berg says Obama also may be a citizen of Indonesia, where he lived as a boy. Federal courts in Pennsylvania have dismissed Berg's lawsuit. Federal courts in Ohio and Washington state have rejected similar lawsuits.

Allegations raised on the Internet say the birth certificate, showing that Obama was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961, is a fake.

But state officials in Hawaii say they checked health department records and have determined there's no doubt Obama was born in Hawaii.

The nonpartisan Web site Factcheck.org examined the original document and said it does have a raised seal and the usual evidence of a genuine document.

In addition, Factcheck.org reproduced an announcement of Obama's birth, including his parents' address in Honolulu, that was published in the Honolulu Advertiser on Aug. 13, 1961.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Sponsored links

Resource guide