Obama And Clinton Not Eligible?
On Monday, December 8, 2008, at 1:30 pm, the We The People Foundation will conduct a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.
This is the same group that questions the right of the federal government to collect federal income taxes and asks them to prove it. The group also has filed lawsuits requesting the "right to petition" the government be enforced.
There are thousands of newsites, major tv news shows and hundreds of newspapers reporting their latest lawsuit. The room is not big enough at the National Press Club for Monday's news conference.
That's because the U.S. Supreme Court is considering it at the moment.
That is the highest court in the United States.
You can not ask for a greater extreme to contrast a wronged party. On the one hand you have a candidate for the presidency about to be sworn in on January 20 with five million people expected to come to Washington to observe and on the other hand a small grass roots group with no power or influence and little track record in national politics simply asking:
Is Obama Eligible to be sworn in?
The licensed attorneys who initiated lawsuits in PA (Philip Berg), NJ (Leo Donofrio) and CA (Orly Taitz), challenging Mr. Obama's legal eligibility to hold the Office of President of the United States, will briefly summarize the facts, legal arguments and status of their cases. They will answer questions from the press.Prior to the start of the conference, at 10 am, the Supreme Court of the United States is expected to announce whether it will consider applications from these attorneys who have asked the Court to delay the proceedings of the Electoral College pending a determination of the underlying constitutional question - the meaning of the "natural born citizen" clause of Article II of the Constitution and its application to Mr. Obama.
In the opinion of Public Advocate, if you can not prove you were born in the United States, you should not be in any federal elective office requiring it. That kind of narrows it down to only one office requiring it. That's the Presidency. So, Mr. Obama has managed to run for the one office that the Supreme Court must bar him from holding if he can not prove he is an American citizen to their satisfaction.
Nothing but a certification from the Supreme Court can allow Mr. Obama to take the oath of office.
In lay terms, if the Court were to certify and the litigants were not satisfied, they would have to appeal to the United Nation's next we would imagine. Either way this is not a light topic for the country as a whole.
Hillary Clinton Can Not Be Secretary Of State?
At the same time, the Constitution seems to be at odds with Hilary Clinton for different reasons.No one doubts her being a citizen. But pay raises for yourself is a legal barrier.
Questions are being raised about Hillary Clinton’s eligibility to serve as secretary of state. That is because of something known as the Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution. Emoluments are salaries. Article 1, Section 6 says:
"No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time."
Emolument is a salary or payment for service.
Cabinet salaries have increased by $4,700/year during Senator Hillary Clinton’s term. And the rule applies even if she did not vote on those raises. In the past, presidents have gotten around the provision by requesting that appointees' salaries be lowered to the pre-raise levels, but there's no word still how the Obama administration will deal with the issue.
Previous presidents have skirted the constitution on this same topic. And they were wrong no matter what political party they were in. America can not ignore the constitution when it is about to start a new government or when it is conducting routine affairs.
A pattern of ignoring simple prohibitions must be avoided if possible.
The President and the Secretary of State will deal with many national and internatonal policies, laws and edicts around the clock, seven days a week for the next 4 years.
If a small group can raise a serious objection on it, look for later challenges from larger and more urgent quarters using the same objections.
This issue of eligibility will be resolved somehow but no one can guess the outcome without knowing the evidence in the case of citizenship status and so far the evidence has not been seen. As far as Secretary of State, Public Advocate asks what part of "No Senator..." is not clear?