What did the US Supreme Court decide about President Obama's birth certificate and citizenship?

Answer 1

The US Supreme Court dismissed the case without comment in December 2008, and denied certiorari to other cases in 2009 and 2010. The Court appears to consider these cases frivolousand not worth their time and attention.

Ever since then-senator Obama began his run for the White House, a group of people, later known as "Birthers," expressed doubt that Mr. Obama was really an American. They insisted he was born in Kenya and somehow spirited into the United States. They offered no credible proof other than a multitude of conspiracy theories, but about 19% of the population, including more than 30% of Republicans, continued to believe Barack Obama was not eligible to be president. Even when Mr. Obama released his birth certificate, verified by the then-Republican governor of Hawaii, the conspiracy theories did not stop.

In December 2008, the US Supreme Court dismissed without comment a New Jersey lawsuit challenging the validity of Obama's birth certificate and his citizenship status. In January 2009 the US Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari that included such terms as "top secret briefing" and "[t]his case involves national security, extraordinary public significance and requires action urgently...", "placing all American citizens and the United States of America in grave danger..." and "it clearly states Obama's name as "Barry Soetoro," and lists his citizenship as Indonesian..." in the report of a very complex and unsubstantiated rationalization as to why Obama should be disqualified from the Presidency.

Regarding such false assertions, it should be noted that Mr. Obama was never legally adopted by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro. He was born as Barack Obama, and lived under that name all his life. Second, his mother was an American citizen (born in Kansas) and there is no evidence she gave birth to Barack anywhere but in Hawaii. Further:

• The archives of both of Honolulu's major newspapers, the Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin, contain birth announcements printed in their papers in 1961:

  Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy., son, Aug. 4

• Obama's mother was enrolled in a Hawaiian college in 1961.
• The State of Hawaii Health Department Director and the Registrar of Vital Statistics personally verified that the Health Department holds Obama's original birth certificate.

In Hollister v. Barry Soetoro (the conspiracy theorists' name for Obama), a civil action brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in March 2009, Judges James Robertson (past President of the District of Columbia Bar) opened his memorandum with the following words that criticize the lack of factual accuracy in the legal challenges against Obama's citizenship:

"This case, if it were allowed to proceed, would deserve mention in one of those books that seek to prove that the law is foolish or that America has too many lawyers with not enough to do. Even in its relatively short life the case has excited the blogosphere and the conspiracy theorists. The right thing to do is to bring it to an early end."

Answer 2

The US Supreme Court did not make any decisions regarding President Obama's birth certificate and citizenship. Multiple courts and investigations confirmed that President Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born citizen of the United States.