The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who claims 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 call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, New Jersey, to intervene in the presidential election.
Donofrio 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 requirements the Constitution lists for eligibility to be president.
Donofrio also contends that two other candidates, Republican John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero, also are not natural-born citizens and thus ineligible to be president.
At least one other appeal over Obama's citizenship remains at the Supreme Court.
Philip J. Berg of Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania argues that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama says and the Hawaii secretary of state has 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, which is now at the consideration of the Supreme Court.