Birth Certificate

LOS ANGELES -- Just when it seemed the controversy over President Barack Obama's birthplace had been laid to rest, a group of Southern California "birthers" had a rare day in federal court Monday to make their case that the president isn't a natural-born American and should be removed from office.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Buena Park, Calif., minister Wiley Drake and leading birther litigator Orly Taitz a chance to challenge the summary dismissal of the case by a Santa Ana, Calif., federal judge two years ago.

Unmoved by the release last week of Obama's official long-form birth certificate showing he was born in Honolulu, the birthers descended in force on the Pasadena, Calif., federal courthouse, wielding fold-out displays of the president's identity documents they contend prove a lifelong pattern of covering up foreign origins.

WASHINGTON -- Now the big question is how many Americans will reject the official birth record proving that Barack Obama was born in the United States and still insist on believing -- despite every fact in evidence -- that he was born in a foreign land and thus not eligible under the Constitution to be president?

Some fringe of the nation's population almost surely will never be convinced, analysts said, but Obama evidently felt enough pressure to try to take the issue off the table after letting it fester for more than two years.