From the New York Times:

Without any comment whatsoever, the Supreme Court today declined to take up an appeal by a New Jersey man who questioned President-elect Barack Obama’s eligibility for the presidency, based on his birth to a father from Kenya and a mother who was a United States citizen.

The case, brought by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., contended that Mr. Obama could not be considered a “natural-born citizen” — a constitutional ground for becoming president of the United States — contending that he had dual nationality at birth.

The state of Hawaii has declared that Mr. Obama was born there in August of 1961, and is a United States citizen, (see FactCheck.org) but that hasn’t stopped a small squall of Internet-fueled rumors from trying to debunk his citizenship. The issue of his birth certificate has long been the subject of rumors, to the point that Mr. Obama’s Web site posted a copy of it on its “fightthesmears” mini-site to try to stanch the innuendo during the campaign.

Donofrio also claims that McCain wasn’t eligible to become President because he was born (on a US military base) in Panama. It’s good that we have xenophobes citizens willing to look out for our best interests, eh? Too bad those pesky liberal activitist judges rejected this true American’s appeal.

Seriousy, though: I, for one, would have been somewhat beyond irritated if we’d ended up with Ralph Nader as President because of this wackjob Donofrio.

This part of the article in particular tickled me:

Last week, Top of the Ticket, the politics blog of The Los Angeles Times, noted that none other than Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was circulating Mr. Donofrio’s appeal for consideration among the members of the highest court. And because the state of Hawaii would not release the original birth certificate — birth certificates aren’t public record there (released only to the family) — various sites have pondered the veracity of the document published by the Obama campaign, even as the state’s officials themselves have declared it valid.

Captain Silver himself is fanning the flames of this ridiculous rumor? I don’t know about you, but I expect a much better bullshit meter, and a lot less politicking, from my Supreme Court justices.