“Birther” Label Overshadows a Real Issue

I have always been one to say that I cannot know the answer to the “birthers’” question of whether Mr. Obama is eligible to hold the Presidency. I can’t answer the question because I am being kept from examining the only documents that do exist to prove the point.

---

To date, I have heard all the arguments and seen all the propaganda – from both sides of the issue – and for all the uproar there is only one way to know who is right and who is mistaken. But the “birther” issue is a literal smoke-screen issue and one that is covering up a much more serious one; one that threatens to produce a constitutional crisis. In examining this subject in the days after it first presented, our non-profit organization, BasicsProject.org, tasked with educating and informing the citizenry on matters that include constitutional literacy, began to ask questions in an effort to honestly understand the facts of the matter. As our examination progressed it became abundantly clear that there exists no mechanism for the enforcement of Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, which states: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.” During our examination of the issue we contacted each of the State Boards of Election and/or Secretary of State’s offices to ask whether they or another organization within their jurisdiction required candidates for the Executive Branch offices to present first-source, vaulted proof of their prerequisite satisfaction of Article II, Section 1. They shared with us that their candidacy filing requirements for any elected office includes: More...