Illinois Newspaper Challenges Eligibility Of Congressional Candidate

If you question whether Barack Obama is a natural born citizen as required by Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution in order to be eligible to serve as president, you are denounced by the mainstream media as a bigot and called a "birther." An Illinois newspaper has no qualms, however, about challenging the eligibility of a candidate for Congress in Illinois' 10th congressional district who immigrated to the U.S. from Rwanda and later became a naturalized citizen. The Daily Herald's Russell Lissau takes on first-time candidate Aloys Rutagwibira:

A suburban Democratic candidate for Congress is ineligible to hold that office because he hasn’t been a U.S. citizen long enough, records show.

Aloys Rutagwibira, 53, of Hainesville is a native of Rwanda who became a naturalized American citizen July 6, 2006, according to voter registration records acquired by the Daily Herald.

Congressional service requires seven years of citizenship, under the Constitution. Rutagwibira won’t be eligible until July 2013.

Rutagwibira is one of five candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the 10th District seat now held by Republican Bob Dold . . .

According to his campaign website, Rutagwibira graduated from Indiana University-South Bend in 1994 and earned a master’s degree from Loyola University Chicago in 2001. He has since worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a mathematical statistician. 

Voter registration records on file with the Lake County clerk’s office in Waukegan indicate Rutagwibira became an American citizen in 2006 at the U.S. District courthouse in Chicago.

The county document, dated Jan. 8, 2008, was signed by Rutagwibira and included an oath of accuracy.

Federal naturalization records are kept by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The records are available to the public only with the written approval of the person to whom the record pertains.

Whereas American presidents must be natural-born American citizens, immigrants are allowed to serve in Congress.

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution says representatives must be at least 25 years old, citizens for at least seven years and residents of the states they seek to represent . . .

Notice how there was no impediment to locating government documents on Rutagwibira in stark contrast to government documents on Obama that all seem to be under lock and key. Constitutional eligibility aside, it looks like Rutagwibira's candidacy was already doomed. The story notes that a challenge to the petitions he filed to get on the ballot had already been made, a practice honed by Barack Obama when he first entered politics as a state senate candidate and successfully challenged and removed every single one of his primary opponents from the ballot, including the long-time incumbent state senator, Alice Palmer. It's curious that reporters who have no problem looking into pesky little questions about the constitution when it comes to other candidates totally abrogate that responsibility when it comes to Obama, and who go out of their to ridicule and denigrate anyone who raises legitimate constitutional questions about his eligibility.