Arizona Senate OKs Birther Bill

Arizona’s Senate approved a bill yesterday requiring presidential candidates to show their “long-form” birth certificate—including date and place of birth, the names of the hospital and attending physician, and witness signatures—before competing in the state. The bill passed 20-9, without a single Democrat voting in favor, the Arizona Daily Star reports. Republicans did, however, soften the bill, accepting an amendment allowing hospital birth records or baptismal or circumcision certificates to be used instead.

Though the bill does not mention Barack Obama specifically, the legislation is a clear nod to the birther movement, and gathered support only after some state Republicans said that questions remained about whether Obama was born in the US. One Senate Democrat said the law was sure to be struck down in the courts, but Senate President Russell Pearce scoffed at that idea. “This is an obligation the state has,” he said. (More birther stories.)