RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events The generic '08 election thread

TURTLECREEK TWP. – A Warren County man is taking the long-simmering dispute over Barack Obama’s birthplace – Hawaii or Kenya? – to court.

David M. Neal of Turtlecreek Township plunked down a $200 fee to file a lawsuit Friday in Warren Common Pleas Court in Lebanon.

The suit seeks to force state and federal officials to take more steps to settle, once and for all, the question of Obama’s legitimacy as a potential president.

The U.S. Constitution requires presidents to be natural-born citizens who are at least 35 years old. “Mr. Obama has failed to demonstrate that he is a ‘natural-born’ citizen,” Neal declares.

He asserts that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, the Democratic National Committee, the Ohio Democratic Party and U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein all ought to be held responsible for verifying that Obama meets the constitutional requirements for president.

Various fact-checking groups and journalists have investigated a Hawaiian birth certificate that they conclude appears to be valid. Images of the document are available on various Internet sites. But Neal and others say doubt lingers.

This is the second politically charged lawsuit to be filed in Warren County in recent weeks. Another suit, filed Oct. 14, was filed by two Warren County residents seeking to dissolve the community organizing group ACORN under the Corrupt Activity Act.

In a phone interview, Neal told The Enquirer he’s a retired businessman, “an ordinary guy,” and not a lawyer. He says he has informally worked with a lawyer through an unnamed “grass-roots group” of people who e-mail each other. The group expects to file similar actions in other states, Neal said.

In fact, much of the wording in Neal’s suit mirrors language in a similar Obama birth challenge filed in August in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania, by attorney Philip Berg.

Neal said mainstream national media organizations have refused to listen to his claims. Asked why he filed the suit, he said, “It’s not about me. It’s about our country.”