Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily, it seems, hasn't given up birtherism -- or hiding the facts about birther conspiracy theories from its audience.
A Dec. 1 WND article by Bob Unruh uncritically repeats the case of failed lawyer Larry Klayman, representing Michael Voeltz's challenge to Obama's "eligibility" in Florida. As we've previously noted, the case was previously dismissed because, since Florida did not conduct a Democratic presidential primary, Klayman had no legal basis on which to sue. Now that Obama has won an election, that legal basis has been established.
Unfortunately for Voeltz, his lawyer is offering no new legal argument. Unruh quotes Klayman as saying, "The judge equated being a ‘citizen’ with a ‘natural born citizen’ and cited no authority to conclude the two terms are the same. He quotes other state’s cases, where judges reached that conclusion, but that’s not precedent for him. What other courts said in lower cases means nothing to him." No evidence is offered in the article that the judge is forbidden from citing the outcomes of birther lawsuits in other states.
The apparent core of the case is rehashing the idea that Obama is not a "natural born citizen" for purposes of being president because his father was not an American citizen. Unruh quotes Klayman's complaint as saying, "Law of Nations defines the term of art ‘natural born citizen’ as one born in the country [to] parents who are that country’s citizens."
But de Vattel's "The Law of Nations" is not a legally binding document, and as we've noted, no direct equivalent to "natural born citizen" appears in Vattel's original French, and the phrase shows up only in English translations of the book issued after the Constitution was written.
Unruh also notes that the complaint "cited the evidence produced by Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s special investigative unit, which has asserted that the birth documentation from Hawaii that Obama claimed was “proof positive” of his Hawaiian birth is not real." But, of course, Unruh fails to mention how the Arpaio cold case posse's "investigation" has been discredited.
