Obama birth certificate controversy

Barack Hussein Obama II, former community activist and senator from Illinois and current President of the United States, was allegedly born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961. A growing movement contends that since Obama has refused to release his long-form birth certificate from the state of Hawaii and since documentary evidence indicates that he may have been born in Kenya, Obama is ineligible to serve as president according to the U.S. Constitution. Obama's supporters and a large swath of the Democratic Party states that Obama was born in Hawaii, and is therefore a "natural-born citizen"; they have dismissed outright the claims of the "birthers" - as they derisively call them - as a non-issue or another conspiracy theory.

United States Constitutional requirements

The Constitution states explicitly who is to be eligible for the office of president. The physical requirements are found in Article II, Section 1:

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.

What is "Natural Born"

The Founding Fathers in 1790 interpreted "natural born" as:

The children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered natural born citizens: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States

See Natural-born citizen

Links

• NPR Archive describes Obama as 'Kenyan-born' Also includes clips from newspapers from various African countries claiming Obama to be born in Kenya. Via WorldNetDaily.