Berg Litigation

A Closer Look At The Birth Certificate
By John P. Connolly, The Bulletin

One of the most intense allegations of the ongoing lawsuit against Sen. 
Barack Obama alleging ineligibility for the presidency is whether or not 
Mr. Obama can produce his birth certificate.

If Mr. Obama were to produce his birth certificate, it would lay the 
entire question to rest. It would prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that 
the U.S. government officially recognizes Mr. Obama's citizenship. The 
Obama campaign says that it has already produced this document, a scanned 
copy of which is available at the campaign's "Fight the Smears" Web site.

One point critics of Mr. Obama have made is the fact that the document 
posted is not, in fact, a birth certificate. It is a birth certification, 
which is a computer-generated printout of a birth record. A certification 
is a cheap print-off for people who have lost their original birth 
certificates. For most people, there is little practical difference 
between a certificate of live birth and a certification of live birth, 
although the certification requires extra verification when being used 
like a birth certificate.

Because of the tenuous nature of identifying a certification of birth as 
genuine, it requires an embossed seal and authoritative signature. The 
low-resolution scan available on the Obama campaign Web site appears to 
have neither of those. The ink from a date stamp, "June 6, 2007," is 
visible clearly, but it appears that the document does not have a seal or 
signature. The campaign only scanned the front of the document.

Without the seal and signature, the document on the Obama Web site lacks 
legal weight, and does not count as representing the official birth record 
of Mr. Obama.

Philip Berg, a former deputy attorney general for Pennsylvania, has filed 
suit against Mr. Obama, alleging that he is not legally qualified to serve 
as president. He has indicated that if Mr. Obama were to produce certified 
documents proving that he is a natural born citizen, he will withdraw his 
case.

Mr. Berg maintains that Mr. Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen, but 
others wonder if there are more reasons why Mr. Obama and the Democratic 
National

Committee have not laid the question to rest by releasing the documents. 
Some think that there may be embarrassing information about Mr. Obama that 
could be inferred from the papers.

The original birth certificate would normally have an entry for religion, 
and many suppose he would have been listed as Muslim, an image Mr. Obama 
has worked hard to distance himself from. Others think it might have shown 
that his parents were not legally married, even though Mr. Obama contends 
that his parents were married in good faith before separating upon 
discovering his father had never divorced his last wife.

The Obama campaign says that the idea that Mr. Obama is not natural born 
is preposterous and cites the certification of birth as an example. But 
until a physical and verifiable document is produced for their critics, 
the lawsuit is expected to continue.

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