Supreme Court Fields Obama Citizenship Challenges

Two lawsuits challenging Barack Obama’s right to be president on the grounds that he is not a US citizen are on the Supreme Court;s "to do" list, but the litigants' hopes of overturning the election results are slim, MSNBC reports. One alleges Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii; the other asserts the “natural born” clause in the Constitution means both of a president's parents must be US citizens.

Both cases are on shaky legal ground, not because of the validity of their claims but because the plaintiffs lack legal standing. A lower-court judge who dismissed the Kenya argument explained that the plaintiff's interest "is no greater and his status no more differentiated than that of millions of other voters."