The House Judiciary Committee of Hawaii is considering a measure that would allow government officials to ignore information requests from people who don’t believe President Obama was born in the United States (and thus not eligible to be president).
The bill, introduced yesterday, would allow the state’s Office of Information Practices to label a birther a “vexatious requester” and limit his or her access to official state records for two years.
According to Lorrin Kim, head of the Hawaii Department of Health’s Office of Planning, Policy and Program Development, though Obama’s Hawaii birth certificate has been made public, the office still receives 10 to 20 requests each week from people looking for information to prove the president is not a U.S. citizen, the AP reports.
State Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R) expressed some reservations about the bill, according to the the AP:
Do we really want to be known internationally as the legislature that blocked any inquiries into where President Obama was born? When people want to get more information, the way to fuel that fire is to say, ‘We’re now going to draw down a veil of secrecy.
Hawaii’s not the only state looking to deal with the seemingly relentless birther movement. An Arizona House Committee recently approved a measure that would require presidential candidates to submit birth documentation before appearing on the state’s ballot. This would include President Obama, should he run again in 2012.
Full coverage of the birther movement can be found at TPMDC.
