Only 20 birthers show up to protest SCOTUS case on Obama BC

Four days ago, Roger Bredow uploaded a video to YouTube beseeching like-minded people to come to Washington, D.C. and stand with him outside the Supreme Court. "[Barack] Obama was born a dual citizen," Bredow said, "British, and a citizen of the United States, at birth." This, said Bredow, meant that the president-elect could never take the oath of office. And on Friday, the Supreme Court would read Donofrio v. Wells, a suit brought by a New Jersey poker player against his state elections officer, which laid out the charges in the hopes of nullifying the election.

Today at 8 a.m., they came. "If I'm going to be honest with you," said Bredow, sporting a floppy American flag hat that he'd promised on YouTube he'd be wearing, "I thought I might be the only person here." He had flown in from Georgia. The other fifteen to twenty people who cycled in and out of the small protest had traveled shorter distances—southern Pennsylvania, northern Virginia—but they felt they had to do something.

obama%20birth%20certificate%20protest%202.JPGThe "dual born citizen" claim is the latest (and maybe strongest) attempt by Obama conspiracy theorists to argue that he can't be president, but most of the people I talked to had questioned Obama's citizenship long before this. "I first heard about it from Phil Berg's case," said Julie Menge of Williamsburg, Virginia, referring to a case that alleges, among other things, that a 2007 state of Hawaii reproduction of Obama's birth certification is forged, and that Obama's paternal Kenyan step-grandmother Sarah was in the room when he was born. One protestor claimed that a mysterious Muslim imam blessed Obama's birth in Kenya, and that this fact would eventually be revealed, somehow. (He cited African Press International, a bizarre web site that claims it has, but will not make public, a tape of Michelle Obama ranting about racist media coverage of her husband.)

At 9 a.m., a black minister who would only give his name as Brother Pittman led a prayer circle and a recitation of the pledge of allegiance. Pittman, who lives in Silver Spring, came as a "representative of the Rev. James David Manning," a Harlem preacher who became an Internet legend for a February sermon in which he called Obama a "long-legged mack daddy" who was "born trash." "I've been shunned by members of my own family," Pittman said. "I tell them, do the research! Go online and look up the facts! This is all about openness and why Barack Obama won't answer questions about who he is."

There's nothing new at all about small, strange protests outside the court, whether or not the justices are at work. While the Obama protestors were praying, a group of 16 young Christians walked up to the other side of the Court steps, strumming a guitar and lighting candles before holding a pro-life prayer vigil. Police and tourists looked on and a very small group of journalists grabbed the Obama protestors for interviews. "This story is writing itself," said a Mother Jones reporter as he filmed the prayer circle.

The Supreme Court will announce whether it will actually consider the Obama lawsuit as early as today and as late as Monday. If (as expected) the Court tosses the suit, Bredow will start challenging Obama's legitimacy based on "foreign money that went into his campaign." Other protestors said they'd start contacting members of the Electoral College. Steve Brindle, who drove down from Pennsylvania, said he'd called his senators yesterday.

"There aren't a lot of people out here today," said Brindle. "There are a lot of people talking about this back home. Really, everyone's asking questions."