Showing posts with label Birther Bills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birther Bills. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

PolitiFact Georgia says Loren is 100% correct on Hatfield's unconstitutional birther bill

My guest from last week, Georgia attorney Loren Collins, got a very nice writeup at PolitiFact Georgia today confirming that everything he said in his editorial last week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and on RC Radio the same evening was correct.Collins said:
"There is not and never has been any constitutional rule mandating that the president ‘has never held dual or multiple citizenship.’ This is pure birther fantasy, a nonexistent bit of pseudo law that an attorney such as Hatfield should know better than to promote."

It sounds like the bill has a huge flaw. Is Collins’ claim true?
PolitiFact just didn't take Loren's word for it; they queried several constitutional law experts.
We presented Hatfield’s argument to legal experts on U.S. citizenship. They agreed that Hatfield’s concept of "natural born" citizenship makes little, if any, legal sense.

"If that [the bill] passes in Georgia’s Statehouse, it will be challenged and it will be struck down as unconstitutional. I am 100 percent confident," said Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor
.
So what was the conclusion?
Collins is right. HB 401 does create eligibility requirements that aren’t in the Constitution. We rule his claim True.
Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. 

I suppose this will make it even less likely that Representative Mark Hatfield would come on a radio show called Reality Check, won't it?
[Update] - I spoke with Representative Hatfield and he has graciously accepted my invitation to be be on the show tomorrow night.