See also Birth Certificate Issue Articles, Miscellany.

There is a claim abroad to the effect that President Barrack Obama is not eligible to be President of the United States because he is not a "natural born Citizen" of the United States as required by the Constitution.  The grounds for this claim are examined in this series of articles.

1. The Birther issue:  the Constitutional question, appeared 5/8/12:  introduces the issue and looks at the text of the Constitution relevant to the matter.
2. The Birther issue:  Supreme Court decisions, appeared 5/15/12:  looks at several of the cases related to citizenship.
3. The Birther issue:  The critical case, appeared 5/22/12:  examines the case that has the most to say about citizenship, and which impacts many aspects of citizenship and immigration law today.
4. The Birther issue:  Statutory definitions, appeared 5/29/12:  gets the final word from the present controling statute.

See also Birther Issue Articles, Miscellany.

In response to the claims that he was not born in the United States, the White House released an electronic copy of what it claimed was Barrack Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate.  In response, "Birther" groups found experts who claim that it is a forgery.  Then the President's attorney made a statement in court in New Jersey which some took to be an admission that the document was fake, and on that basis started claiming that he had committed fraud by forgery and ought to be impeached.  This series explores the issues in that claim.

1. The birth certificate:  Admitted fake?, appeared 6/5/12:  examines what the President's lawyer said in court in New Jersey and what that actually means.
2. The birth certificate:  Ballot requirements?, appeared 6/12/12:  explores why the Presidential Electoral College system means that a Presidential candidate does not have to prove his eligibility to serve in the office.
3. The birth certificate:  Elector responsibility, appeared 6/12/19:  places the responsibility for assuring that the elected President meets the requirements where the Founding Fathers apparently intended.
4. The birth certificate:  Impeachment for fraud?, appeared 6/26/12:  examines whether a crime was committed, and by whom, when the White House published a copy of a claimed Presidential birth certificate which is claimed to be a forgery.
5. The birth certificate:  The Tennessee admission, appeared 7/10/12:  studies and faults the claim that the President's lawyers admitted his ineligibility for office in a case in Tennessee.

See also Presidential, Election 2014.

The Republican Presidential Primary was particularly divisive, with groups supporting candidates of very different political viewpoints and serious questions concerning whether any one of them would be able to unite the party.  This notion of uniting the party, though, points to the essential problem in the American political system, which is a problem precisely because most Americans are not aware of how the process works at the party level.  Thus an explanation of coalition government, and how that applies in this country, seems useful.

1. Coalition government:  Why Republicans are divided, appeared 7/17/12:  manages to cover most of the essential points, including why coalitions in America are formed differently from those in England or Israel, in a single article.
2. Coalition government:  The third party problem, appeared 7/24/12:  examines why third parties do not thrive in our present system.
3. Coalition government:  Why we have an Electoral College, appeared 10/30/12:  returns to issues surrounding the Electoral College, and why we do not have direct election of our President.
4. Coalition government:  Eliminating the College, appeared 11/6/12:  published on Election Day 2012, looks deeper at the existence of the Electoral College, what the Framers expected, and what its elimination might mean.
5. Coalition government:  Making sense of the College, appeared 11/13/12:  looks for a plausible basis for retaining the Electoral College system in its present form.
6. Coalition government:  Revamping the College, appeared 11/20/12:  considers a proposed shift to proportional representation in the Electoral College, and shows why it cannot be implemented.
7. Coalition government:  Rebuilding the Republican Party, appeared 11/27/12:  looks at what the Republicans need to do to return to a competitive force on the national stage.

See also Church and State, Freedom of Expression, Discrimination.

The Examiner editorial staff requested that political columnists address the issues surrounding the homosexual marriage debate.  With some trepidation I began, and found that I had quite a bit to say, hopefully in the name of amicable dialogue.

1. Homosexual marriage:  The dialogue problem, appeared 7/31/12:  introduces the issue and attempts to establish a peaceable foundation for discussion.
2. Homosexual marriage:  Licenses, appeared 8/7/12:  discusses what a license is, why we have them for marriages, and what they regulate.
3. Homosexual marriage:  Interest, appeared 8/14/12:  explains why any effort to regulate any relationship based on a sexual component is now unconstitutional.
4. Homosexual marriage:  Basis, appeared 8/21/12:  seeks and fails to find a legitimate basis for marriage licenses in the regulation of sexual conduct.
5. Homosexual marriage:  Responsibility, appeared 8/28/12:  explores another possible basis for a legitimate state interest in licensing marriages, finding a possibility.
6. Homosexual marriage:  Legitimacy, appeared 9/4/12:  extends the basis explored in the previous article to another facet in which the state has a legitimate interest.
7. Homosexual marriage:  The pedophile argument, appeared 9/11/12:  considers the strengths and weaknesses of the argument that approval of homosexuality will lead to acceptance of pedophilia.
8. Homosexual marriage:  Response, appeared 9/18/12:  returns to the slippery slope discussion in response to comments from readers.

See also Search and Seizure Issues, Privacy Issues.

There is a definite sense in which the American response to the modern terrorist threat over the past decade has itself eroded some of our freedoms.  Many are calling for a restoration of those freedoms, while others are more afraid of a next terrorist attack.  This section explores the issues in this debate.

1. Homeland Security:  Nothing new, appeared 9/25/12:  The reaction of sacrificing freedoms to protect them is examined generally.

The suggestion was made that we ought to find a way to keep guns out of the hands of those who are possibly unstable, and so reduce the chance of someone going on a shooting spree.  The series explores the ramifications and possibilities involved.

1. Gun control:  Crazies, appeared 10/2/12:  puts forward the idea as presented, that people who are marginally unstable and potentially dangerous ought to be prevented from owning guns, and raises some of the preliminary issues, such as how we identify such people and how we blacklist them.
2. Gun control:  The Constitution, appeared 10/9/12:  explains the Constitutional right, the reason for its existence, and the problems that creates for all talk about gun control of any sort.
3. Gun control:  Registration, appeared 10/16/12:  explores the problems involved in creating such a blacklist, from the sheer number of people who would be listed to the even greater number of people who would have to be examined to determine whether they belonged on the list, and how that becomes as much a list giving permission as a list withholding it.
4. Gun control:  Inverse, appeared 10/23/12:  pursues the reality that creating a blacklist inherently involves creating a whitelist, and finds two serious problems with this.
5. Gun control:  Profiling, appeared 12/4/12:  recognizes that the method is likely to be unconstitutionally discriminatory, as even if bias can be avoided the appearance of bias probably cannot.
6. Gun control:  A system, appeared 12/11/12:  suggests what might be done to begin to approach such a system within the law, and notes that there are already some steps in this direction under Federal gun sales laws.
7. Gun control:  Enforcement, appeared 12/18/12:  examines the problems involved in applying a law that forbids some from owning guns, in terms of the infringement of their other rights and those of the public at large.
8. Gun control:  Massacres, appeared 12/25/12:  examines the notion that mass shootings have become a great problem recently, and finds it wanting on several fronts.

Gun control has been a hot topic as long as I have been aware of the political process, and is not likely to go away; there have been additional articles on the subject periodically through 2013 and 2014.

See also Gubernatorial 2013, Senatorial 2013, Election 2014, Presidential, Miscellany.

With the election it seemed worthwhile to do extra articles covering issues in New Jersey, which perhaps might be of interest to other states but which were of particular interest here.  That opened a new subject area which might perhaps have been opened sooner, as the New Jersey Political Buzz Examiner ought to cover New Jersey issues.  So here are some of those:

• New Jersey 2012 Bond Ballot Issue, appeared 11/03/12:  approaches the question concerning approving the issue of bonds for financing educational infrastructure, and explores the implications and impacts of bond issues generally
• New Jersey 2012 Ballot Issue #2, appeared 11/04/12:  considers the legislature's proposed constitutional amendment empowering them to authorize payroll withholdings from judicial salaries to cover benefits packages, and some of the politicking involved in the legislative/judicial relationship.
• New Jersey 2012 ballot issues results, appeared 11/19/12:  covers the outcome of the election in relation to the two Public Questions, with some further information about these.

Additional articles in this category appeared in 2013.

That is the list of all articles published during our first calendar year as Political Buzz Examiner; additional indices will cover the subsequent years.