Diana West apparently doesn’t understand how the legal process works. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gotten so much wrong in her June 9 WorldNetDaily column-slash-birther rant.
West writes:
New Jersey citizens, represented by attorney Mario Apuzzo, made two claims: that Barack Obama has not proved he meets the conditions for presidential eligibility (namely, that he is a “natural born citizen”), and that the proof Obama released attesting to his bona fides (an Internet image of his long-form birth certificate) is fraudulent.
In fact, Apuzzo was not representing “New Jersey citizens”; he was representing two specific New Jersey citizens, Nicholas E. Purpura and Theodore T. Moran. And Obama has proven his “presidential eligibility”; West simply refuses to accept it by insisting on a definition of “natural born citizen” that does not exist in American law and ignoring the fact that the state of Hawaii has vouched for the authenticity of Obama’s birth certificate.
West goes on to complain that an administrative judge ruled that “A presidential candidate has no obligation under New Jersey state law to prove his eligibility, period.” Which, of course, is the correct ruling. Still West whines about it by demanding that judges go beyond their legal authority:
The following questions, asked last week by the three judges who heard the New Jersey case on appeal, typify the official attitude:
“Why is it incumbent on New Jersey to resolve this issue?”
Subtext: Voters, schmoters.
“What statute of New Jersey says he (Obama) has to prove his eligibility?”
Subtext: Please make it someone else’s problem.
“Why won’t Congress and (the Electoral College) protect the integrity of the election?”
Subtext: It’s not our problem.
“Why don’t we accept at face value that they made that determination (after the 2008 election)?”
Subtext: It’s no one’s problem anymore. Can we go home yet?
“Do you agree that we need not reach the issue of natural born citizen?”
Subtext: We don’t want to walk that scary plank, whatever we do.Surprise, surprise, the appeals court upheld President Obama’s eligibility. The judges, along with Obama’s counsel, agreed that any eligibility questions should be kicked upstairs to Congress and the Electoral College – and after the November 2012 election.
Again, the appeals court made the correct ruling. Apuzzo never established that New Jersey has any legal obligation to vet the eligibility of presidential candidates, so the judges are correct in not enforcing one.
But West is not done whining. After asking “What’s up with that funky online ID of his? No junior high school would hire a P.E. teacher on the strength of that” — again, ignoring that the state of Hawaii has vouched for its authenticity — she complains that “some media outlets that subscribe to this column have informed me they won’t run anything I write on the eligibility subject.”
If West would recognize reality instead of regurgitating discredited birther conspiracies, that might change.