OxfordPress.com

LEBANON — A Warren County judge will decide whether Sen. Barack Obama's name can appear on Ohio election ballots after listening Thursday, Oct. 30, to a Turtlecreek Twp. man's claim that the Democratic candidate is not a U.S. citizen and cannot be elected president.

David Neal, 55, appeared in Warren County Common Pleas Court after filing a lawsuit on Friday. Neal wants a court order to remove Obama's name from ballots to be used in the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Neal claims Obama was not born in Kenya and cannot be president because the U.S. Constitution allows only native-born citizens to be elected to that post.

"We're facing a constitutional crisis," Neal said in court. "Until we get to the bottom of this, there's going to be disenfranchisement."

Appearing before Magistrate W. Andrew Hasselbach, Neal said he had researched questions about Obama's birthplace since 2006 and made several requests to the Hawaiian bureau of statistics along with national and Ohio Democratic Party officials for a birth certificate that would prove Obama was born in Hawaii as the senator claims.

"Wouldn't you think a doctor or nurse would have stepped up and said I was in the room when he was born?" Neal said.

In his lawsuit and during the hearing, Neal cited numerous Web sites as sources of information to challenge Obama's birthplace. Neal added that he had to produce birth certificates to sign his children up for youth football.

In a brief filed Thursday disputing Neal's claim, the Ohio Attorney General's office said that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has "no legal authority to perform" the removal of Obama's name from ballots.

"... the allegations in the Complaint are nothing but speculation and inadmissible hearsay. There is no evidence in the Record that Senator Obama was born in Kenya, or that he somehow lost his United States citizenship during his time in Indonesia. Mr. Neal's allegations are anything but 'clear or free from reasonable doubt' ," the attorney general's brief stated.

Mike Schuler and Steven McGann, representatives from the Ohio Attorney General's office, also appeared Thursday in Warren County Common Pleas Court, filed the state's brief and said nothing during the hearing.

Neal's lawsuit is based on a long-standing Internet rumor that Obama's Hawaii birth certificate is a forgery and he was actually born in his father's native country, Kenya. A spokesman for the Obama campaign said that the allegations had been "roundly and repeatedly debunked."

Hasselbach asked Neal why he had waited until 11 days before the election to file his claim in Warren County Common Pleas Court. Neal said that he had hoped other cases in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. would clear up questions about Obama's citizenship, and when they did not, he decided to take action.

However, an almost identical complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania on Aug. 21, was dismissed Friday, the same day Neal filed his lawsuit in Lebanon. That case was appealed Thursday to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

The Warren County judge said he would issue a decision on Neal's request for an injunction by noon on Friday, Oct. 31.

On Thursday after the court hearing, Neal described himself as a retired "jack of all trades," and said that he filed the lawsuit himself and is not working with or for the Republican Party in the lawsuit.

On Monday, Neal said he owns a company that sells products to help users of illegal drugs pass employers' drug screenings.

ACS Herbal Tea Co., Neal's company, sells products that "cleanse blood, urine, saliva or hair within an hour," according to the company's Web site. ACS products include Urine Luck Solution, Magnum Synthetic Urine, Ultra Saliva Detox Kit and, "for heavy users," the Eight Day Complete Detox.