The New Jersey Obama eligibility challengers took heart when an Arizona official asked Hawaii to verify Barack Obama's birth certificate.
Arizona raises Obama eligibility stakes
Yesterday evening, Jerome R. Corsi at WND reported the latest Obama eligibility action. Ken Bennett, Secretary of State for Arizona, sent a letter to several members of the Surprise, AZ Tea Party. This same group first sent the petition to Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County to investigate Barack Obama's White House birth certificate document. More recently, they wrote Mr. Bennett to ask him not to list Barack Obama on the election ballot this fall.
Bennett, writing back, told the Tea Party people that he had asked the State of Hawaii to verify the information on the birth certificate. He noted that Hawaii's own laws force it to yield such information to officials in other States who ask for it in the course of their work.
He carefully clarified that Sheriff Arpaio has shown only that he had "probable cause" to suspect forgery in the case of the Internet birth certificate image. He suggested that Sheriff Arpaio should ask the Maricopa County attorney to prosecute.
Then Bennett said this:
Whether or not that happens, if Hawaii can’t or won’t provide verification of the president’s birth certificate, I will not put his name on the ballot.
Brian Reilly, the Arizona activist who first suggested petitioning Sheriff Joe Arpaio to investigate, cheered the letter.
NJ Obama eligibility challengers react
Nick Purpura (Wall Twp.) is one of two men raising an Obama eligibility challenge in New Jersey. When this Examiner reached him for comment, he also gave a loud cheer.
Anyone who thinks that the Tea Party is dead in this country should take note! We are alive, and well, and not going away. We are originalists, we want our Constitution back, and we're going to fight for it.
He also spoke to what this means for the case that he and fellow activist Ted Moran (Toms River) filed with the New Jersey Division of Elections.
This is a fantastic development, particularly since we have a case on appeal. Thank God we finally have a Secretary of State with the courage to ask the right questions! I think that the Appellate Division should take special judicial notice that now a State official has asked the State of Hawaii to verify the birth certificate. The court should send a letter like [Bennett]'s to the State of Hawaii, asking them to verify. Because we have no evidence!
Purpura also said that the Appellate Division, "to preserve the integrity of the court," should reconsider its order for a telephonic oral argument in the case of Purpura and Moran v. Obama.
This case demands an open oral argument, before the public.
The Appellate Division agreed to hear Purpura and Moran, and to accelerate their appeal. Administrative Law Judge Jeff S. Masin has ruled that Obama need not show eligibility to be on a primary ballot, and that, presuming that he was born in Hawaii as he claims, he is a natural-born citizen within the meaning of Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 5 of the Constitution of the United States. Purpura and Moran dispute both findings.
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