Former UT law grad sues Obama, questions citizenship
Last Edited: Monday, 13 Oct 2008, 9:26 PM EDT
Created: Monday, 13 Oct 2008, 9:26 PM EDT
Sen. Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate, talks with residents in Holland while canvassing the Shrewsbury Street neighborhood Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008. Sen. Obama is in greater Toledo for an extended stay while preparing for a debate with Sen. John McCain Wednesday at Hofstra University in New York. Photo by Barrett Andrews, FOX Toledo News.
Philip J. Berg, a former University of Toledo School of Law graduate, has filed a lawsuit against Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. He's claiming the Illinois senator is not a U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible to run for president.
If elected, his selection to the presidency would cause a crisis within the U.S. Constitution.
"If we can't enforce our constitution, especially a candidate for president, we're in real trouble in this country, more trouble than you really want to believe and it's frightening," said Berg from his offices in Lafayette Hill, Penn., a suburb of Philadelphia.
Berg, a former Deputy Attorney General for the State of Pennsylvania, filed the lawsuit in federal court Aug. 21 (Berg vs. Obama, Civil Action No. 08-cv-4083), "seeking a Declaratory Judgment and an Injunction that Obama does not meet the qualifications to be President of the United States."
Three qualifications must be met for someone to become president under the Constitution. You must be at least 35 years of age, a resident of the United States for at least 14 years, and a natural-born citizen.
Berg believes the 47-year-old senator from Illinois does not meet the last qualification. Although the Obama campaign states he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Berg believes Obama was born in Kenya. Further investigation reveals he may still be a citizen of Indonesia.
A school registration Berg has obtained lists Obama's name as Barry Soetoro, after his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, and lists his citizenship as Indonesia.
Berg said Obama's mother sent him back to the U.S. when he was 10, and one of two things would have happened then. If he went through immigration, he would be a naturalized citizen, not a natural-born citizen.
"He today could still be a citizen of Indonesia and could be an illegal alien, which would mean he could not even hold his Senate seat from Illinois," Berg said in a cell phone call from Pennsylvania. "So, it's really important that we all look at his records."
Factcheck.org claims it has proof of Obama's U.S. citizenship. Berg has questioned that proof because the Web site is owned by Annenberg.
According to the site, the "Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in 1994 to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels."
"That is a group where Obama sat on the board a number of years dispersing funds, so I would think there's a little conflict of interest there."
The proof, Berg said, needs to be in the hands of a judge.
"Senator Obama, if I'm wrong, prove me wrong, produce the documentation," he said. "If you have nothing to hide, stop hiding behind legalisms, lets avoid a constitutional crisis in this country."
Lucas County Democratic Party Chairman Ron Rothenbuhler, who didn't know of the lawsuit, questioned Berg's intentions.
"If it's not a vendetta, then it must be somebody challenging somebody's right to either privacy or questioning the information they've already received," Rothenbuhler said.
