Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz today issued the following statement following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to hear a legal challenge brought by Greenwich resident Cort Wrotnowski claiming that President-elect Barack Obama was ineligible to be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States because his citizenship status was in question.
“The Supreme Court of the United States has appropriately decided not to intervene in a case with very little, if any legal merit. Clearly, President-elect Barack Obama is a born citizen of the United States over the age of 35 and won a majority of the votes on Election Day November 4, 2008. Therefore, he meets the constitutional requirements to serve as President of the United States. Following yesterday’s vote, President-elect Obama won 365 Electoral votes – plenty more than enough to be sworn in as our country’s 44th President.
This legal challenge was based on erroneous information and was legitimately dismissed at the state level. I am relieved that the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court found no reason to question the view of our own jurists in Connecticut, who found that President-elect Obama was eligible to become president and as such had every right to be on our state’s ballots and certified as the winner of Connecticut’s 7 Electoral votes.”