Supreme Court turns down appeal on Obama's citizenship

WASHINGTON - The US Supreme Court turned down an emergency appeal yesterday from a New Jersey man who says that President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.

The court did not comment on its order rejecting the case from Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., who says that since Obama had dual nationality at birth - his mother was American, and his Kenyan father at the time was a British subject - he cannot possibly be a "natural born citizen," one of the constitutional requirements for eligibility to be president.

At least one other appeal over Obama's citizenship remains at the court. Philip J. Berg of Lafayette Hill, Pa., argues that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama says and Hawaii officials have confirmed. Berg says Obama also may be a citizen of Indonesia, where he lived as a boy. Federal courts in Pennsylvania have dismissed Berg's lawsuit, and federal courts in Ohio and Washington state have rejected similar lawsuits.

Allegations raised on the Internet say the birth certificate, showing that Obama was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961, is a fake. But state officials in Hawaii say they checked health department records and have determined there is no doubt Obama was born in Hawaii.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ABC News said yesterday it had obtained a copy of a television ad that Republican John McCain did not run because he kept his promise not to discuss the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. during his presidential campaign against Barack Obama.

McCain went after Obama on a raft of issues and on his association with former radical William Ayers, who led a group that bombed government buildings during the 1970s. But he stayed away from Wright, in part to avoid being accused of racism.

The spot features the well-known footage of Wright railing against America from the pulpit of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. It then contrasts McCain refusing to be released early from a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp because he was an admiral's son with Obama staying in the church while Wright was making such remarks.

"Character matters, especially when no one's looking," the announcer says. Obama repudiated Wright, who officiated at his wedding and baptized his two daughters, after the pastor made more controversial remarks, and Obama eventually left the church.

FOON RHEE

President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden plan to meet privately today with former vice president Al Gore to discuss climate change and alternative energy jobs, Obama's transition office said.

Democrats familiar with plans for the meeting said it was not intended to be a discussion of whether Gore might take a position in the Obama administration. Obama has counted Gore as an adviser on climate change and has pledged to use part of his proposed economic stimulus package to develop green technologies aimed at creating jobs.

Since serving two terms under former president Bill Clinton, Gore has become a leader in the movement to draw attention to climate change and global warming, sharing the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his work.

His documentary film on climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Academy Award the same year.

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WASHINGTON - Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City gave a boost yesterday to Caroline Kennedy as a possible candidate to replace Hillary Clinton in the US Senate, saying she is experienced and "can do anything."

"Caroline Kennedy is a very experienced woman," Bloomberg said. "She's worked very hard for the city. I can just tell you she's made an enormous difference in New York City."

Kennedy - the daughter of the slain president, John F. Kennedy - has worked with the Bloomberg administration raising tens of millions of dollars a year in private money to help New York City's public schools. Her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said recently that she is interested in the Senate seat that would become open if Clinton is confirmed as President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of state.

Governor David Paterson of New York would appoint someone to the seat for a two-year period, after which he or she would have to run for election, and then for a full term in 2012.

Paterson said yesterday he would "absolutely" consider someone, like Kennedy.

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WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton yesterday made her first visit to the State Department since she was named to be America's next top diplomat and planned to dine with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Rice said Sunday that she thinks Clinton will do a great job. Once confirmed, Clinton will be the country's third female secretary of state following Rice and Madeleine Albright.

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