High court denies Vt. ‘natural born citizen’ Obama case

A Vermonter’s effort to have a court declare Barack Obama unqualified to be president because he is not a “natural born citizen” appears to have reached a dead end.

The U.S. Supreme Court, without comment, this week denied a request by Brooke Paige of Washington, Vt., to consider his Writ of Certiorari, or appeal of a 2013 ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court that went against Paige.

The state Supreme Court, in its 5-0 opinion, had concluded Paige’s case was moot because Obama won re-election in 2012 and by law is prevented from seeking a third term.

“Obama is not a ‘natural born citizen’ because he was not born to two U.S. citizen parents,” Paige had alleged in his appeal. “Hence, he is not eligible to be president.”

Paige said Thursday he would ask the nation’s highest court to reconsider its decision, but acknowledged getting it to change its mind on the matter is unlikely.

“It saddens me to see our Constitution being treated as a list of suggestions, a smorgasbord of ideas or worst of all treated with the same respect afforded toilet tissue,” Paige said. “I can almost hear the Founders and Framers groaning in their graves.”

Paige originally sued Obama, the state of Vermont and Secretary of State James Condos in 2012, arguing the state should have kept Obama’s name off the Vermont presidential ballot because Obama was ineligible to hold national office.

Paige’s argument was different than the claims by “birthers” that Obama wasn’t born in the United States and therefore is ineligible to be president.

Instead, he based his challenge to Obama on an interpretation of historical papers the country’s framers relied on at the time the Constitution was written that said a natural-born citizen was someone who was born of parents who were both American citizens.

Obama’s father, now deceased, was a citizen of Kenya.

The natural born citizen term is contained in the Constitution and applies only to candidates for the presidency and vice presidency.

Condos said Thursday he was pleased with the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It was not unexpected, although you never know with the courts,” he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court receives about 7,000 appeals, or petitions for Writ of Certioriari, of lower court rulings each year but takes up less than 150 to review, according to online court data. At least four justices have to agree to take up a case for a review to occur.

Paige, a retiree, sought the 2012 Vermont Republican U.S. Senate nomination, losing in a primary by a 3-1 margin to John MacGovern, who was subsequently defeated by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or shemingway@freepressmedia.com. Follow Sam on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SamuelHemingway.