The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to convict Barack Obama of high treason, overturning a not-guilty verdict that was upheld by an appeals court. The treason charge relates to his use of a forged certificate of live birth to claim falsely that he was born in the United States. In doing so, he circumvented the constitutional language requiring the president to be a natural-born citizen. The court’s conservative bloc had sought the death penalty for Mr. Obama, although it agreed to a lesser sentence of 7 years in federal prison followed by a lifetime of house arrest to win the vote of Anthony Kennedy.
Obama was also found guilty, by a 5-4 margin, on 13 counts of felony identity theft and 14 counts of possession of a forged instrument, all but one for carrying bogus social security cards. (Ten additional counts were thrown out at the prosecution’s request.) For this, he was fined $27,000 and sentenced to 13 months in prison. Additionally, the court ruled 8-1 that Obama would be incapacitated if imprisoned. The lone dissenter was Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed by Obama. Obama is to be transported to federal prison in Chicago on April 7. Joe Biden’s inauguration as president is set for Tuesday, April 6. The author of the majority opinion, Antonin Scalia, wrote: “Obama has used his relationship with several media outlets to openly defy the constitution, and must be brought to justice despite any instability his conviction may cause.” The lead author of the dissenting opinion, Ms. Sotomayor, lamented, “It is unconscionable that the court would convict a sitting president on fabricated charges.” Many of Obama’s supporters echoed that sentiment, but the word of the law is final. A 93-year-old man whose identity was stolen by Obama breathed a sigh of relief. “Now I can live out my life in peace. People thought I just wanted attention. Now they know the truth,” he said. The other twelve identities Obama was found to have stolen were of deceased people whose records were once held by his grandmother in Hawaii. Obama had believed, falsely, that this man was also dead, which is why he was targeted. Conservative activists said this court decision would lead to the nullification of any actions Obama took since being elected, though legal experts disagreed. “You can’t just say the last 17 months never happened,” said a spokesperson for the American Bar Association. “Any lawsuit to nullify Obama’s work will likely be seen as frivolous, just as Nixon’s work couldn’t be reversed when he was forced out of office.” Nonetheless, the decision could provide a boost to states seeking to require that presidential candidates show a valid birth certificate in order to be placed on the ballot. Such laws could prevent this type of fraud from reoccurring.***** One can dream can't they? -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
