Berg vs Obama: A brief update

I called the Supreme Court public information office about the significance of December 1 for this case. As I suspected, there is none currently. As I reported on November 19, the Department of Justice waived the right to respond on behalf of Obama, the DNC, etc., to the writ of certiorari filed by Philip Berg in his case against Barack Obama.
According to the SCOTUS representative, the next step is for the case to be scheduled for conference with the full Court. About 10,000 certiorari petitions are received per term with 75-80 granted. There is no set time for this petition to be heard by the full Court. The writ will be granted or denied at that meeting. We can have a docket watch for the date and outcome.
UPDATE: 12/2/08 – Lisa Liberi from Philip Berg’s office wrote to say that the Solicitor General is only representing the Federal Election Commission. Obama, and the DNC have separate counsel but the Court has had no response from them. According to Liberi, SCOTUS was waiting a week in case the responses had been mailed. A conference date with the full Court regarding the certiorari petition will be scheduled after the week passes. She also noted that Berg has a petition in the works to prevent Electors from casting Obama votes in the Electoral College.
Related Posts:
Berg vs Obama: Response to Supreme Court Due December 1
Berg vs Obama: Dept of Justice Waives Right to Respond to Petition
Berg vs Obama: Update and current status
Donofrio vs Wells: NJ Obama citizenship case slated for SCOTUS conference

14 thoughts on “Berg vs Obama: A brief update”

  1. Has Berg countered the fact that Snopes, factcheck and a few other places have got copies of the birth announcement in a Hawaii newspaper? I suppose they could have commissioned the announcement from the Savannah some how! πŸ˜€ πŸ˜›

  2. Mary–
    No, I’m not certain. All I know is that the twins, Fran and Joe, were adopted from Italy when they were in second grade. And it was in 7th grade, I think, that we attended their naturalization. (But I’m an old fart…that was back in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s.)
    Most people couldn’t tell the brothers apart but I determined that I was going to learn a physical difference between them. It must have worked. I didn’t see either one of them again after 8th grade. Then about ten years ago, I saw Joe in the mall on a visit home. He wasn’t just astounded that I recognized him after some 30 years but that I still knew it was him and not Fran.
    Hmmm…surely there’s a job in Homeland Security for me….

  3. Eddy,
    Are you certain about the process of citizenship for adopted children? It was my understanding that a child (who is too young to speak,etc…) can have citizenship passed to them once adoption was completed (without a long process.)

  4. John K.–
    Does adoption by an Indonesian confer Indonesian citizenship? Children adopted by American parents still have to go through the naturalization process to become US Citizens. If adoption by an Indonesian does confer citizenship, does it also revoke US citizenship? And–if an Indonesian adoption took place–did it have any impact on the citizenship of Obama’s mother and did it somehow trump hers?

  5. Natural Born Citizen Act – Defines the constitutional term β€œnatural born citizen,” to establish eligibility for the Office of President, as: (1) any person born in, and subject to the jurisdiction of, the United States; and (2) any person born outside the United States who derives citizenship at birth from U.S. citizen parents, or who is adopted by the age of 18 by U.S. citizen parents who are otherwise eligible to transmit citizenship.
    GovTrack.us. S. 2128–108th Congress (2004): Natural Born Citizen Act, GovTrack.us (database of federal legislation) (accessed Dec 1, 2008)

    Last time I checked, this won’t much matter if he was adopted by an Indonesian, and never regained American citizenship.

  6. “Dirty Pool” at the Supreme Court apparently on behalf of Obama currently usurping YOUR Constitution: Leo Donofrio’s companion case, brought by Cort Wrotnowski, with fuller/better briefing showing Obama is not an Article II “natural born citizen” reportedly has been sidetracked to the anthrax lab to deprive the full Court from seeing those filings in connection with Donofrio’s case this Friday, Dec 5, 2008. DO SOMETHING AMERICA!!!

  7. The last time I checked, you have to have an Amendment to alter the constitution. An act as described above, is meaningless in terms of the Constitution. Therefore there is some merit to the argument of the meaning of natural born citizen.

    Tell that to the two Repubican senators from Oklahoma who co-sponsored the bill.
    But in point of fact the bill never became law. I think this was a part of the love-affair the Republican were having with Arnold Schwarzenegger. But that has for the most part passed….

  8. The last time I checked, you have to have an Amendment to alter the constitution. An act as described above, is meaningless in terms of the Constitution. Therefore there is some merit to the argument of the meaning of natural born citizen.

  9. Natural Born Citizen Act – Defines the constitutional term “natural born citizen,” to establish eligibility for the Office of President, as: (1) any person born in, and subject to the jurisdiction of, the United States; and (2) any person born outside the United States who derives citizenship at birth from U.S. citizen parents, or who is adopted by the age of 18 by U.S. citizen parents who are otherwise eligible to transmit citizenship.
    GovTrack.us. S. 2128–108th Congress (2004): Natural Born Citizen Act, GovTrack.us (database of federal legislation) (accessed Dec 1, 2008)

    One might wonder just what other feelings are being served among the neo-con’s by this bogus “affair” other than the stated demands to uphold the Constitution.

  10. The writ petition has not been granted or denied. In other words, the request from Berg for the SCOTUS to review his case is still pending. About 10,000 requests for review are submitted with only 75-80 per year granted. This full Court review is a normal response to a certiorari petition. Nothing about the merits of his case should be read into this. Odds are that the SCOTUS will deny the request although the reasons for not setting a conference date by now are not clear. The date for conference could have been set after Nov. 18 since the respondents waived their right to respond. Not being a seasoned court watcher, I cannot hazard a speculation about what if anything it means that the date for conference has not been set.

  11. Not being an attorney, I don’t know what full the implication
    of the case being ‘scheduled for conference with the full
    Court’ entirely means, but it sure doesn’t sound to me
    like that matter has been resolved.

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