Interest In Obama Eligibility Surging

While that may be the legally correct interpretation- Congress ultimately will be the body that decides whether a President is legal- and Congress signaled that they believed McCain to be a Natural Born Citizen. If McCain had been elected, he would have been confirmed by Congress and would have been our legally elected President.

 

Notice that the 'huge surge of interest' died immediately as soon as MCCP was banned?

 

Under the US Constitution the Congress does not interpret the US Constitution, the US Supreme Court does (Ref Article III).

To date the definitive decision on natural born citizenship is the Supreme Court decision in the United States v Kim Wong Ark where the US Supreme Court ruled that Kim Wong Ark was a US citizen based upon jus soli under the 14th Amendment and that statutory laws could not infringe upon his Right of Natural Born Citizenship. There have been no subsequent Supreme Court decisions related to natural born citizenship based upon the enumerated criteria of born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof (i,e, the natural Right of Citizenship based upon jus soli).

To my knowledge all of the "birther" lawsuits on President Obama's citizenship have been tossed out of federal court because a private citizen doesn't have standing to bring a lawsuit on eligibility for a presidential candidate. To my knowledge only a State would have standing to present a lawsuit based upon the natural born citizenship of a presidential candidate and no State has ever made a legal challenge based upon "natural born citizenship" of a presidential candidate so far. Of course in Obama's case a State wouldn't have grounds for a lawsuit because the COLB issued by the Dept of Health in Hawaii is the legal record of birth for Obama and every other State must accept it based upon the Full Faith and Credit clause of Article IV of the US Constitution.

Now challenging John McCain's "natural born citizenship" is legitimate because his COLB clearly establishes that he wasn't born in the United States and that he obtained his citizenship based upon a "naturalization" law passed by Congress. Once again though I believe that only a State would have standing in this challenge as it would "suffer harm" by including a person that isn't a natural born citizen on a ballot for president in an election.

Standing is critically important in bringing a case before the US Supreme Court.

 

While the Supreme Court does interpret the Constitution in most matters, the Supreme Court has limited authority when it comes to the Presidency itself.

For instance- if John McCain was elected and inaugerated as President, I do not believe that the Supreme Court would consider a lawsuit regarding his eligiblity- because the Court has no recourse- only Congress can remove a sitting President.

The Courts might rule on eligibility for a candidate, but once an election happened, I think the Courts would defer to Congress- since the process goes from the voters to the Electoral College to Congress for approval.

Looking back on McCain again- the election happened- and Congress would have confirmed his election if he was elected. While people are divided on whether McCain was technically eligible(I would say he is- I am more a "spirit of the law" guy than a "letter of the law" guy- Congress had signalled they would confirm him, and the Courts would not have intervened.