Hawaiian law blocks pesky 'birthers'

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HONOLULU, May 13 (UPI) -- It's now legal for Hawaii to brush off so-called birthers and any others who bug the state about President Barack Obama's birth certificate.

Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law Wednesday a bill allowing the state to ignore repeated requests for Obama's birth certificate, the New York Daily News reports.

Beleaguered state Health Department officials say they still receive up to 20 e-mail messages weekly asking they verify Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. U.S. citizenship is necessary to be president and birthers doubt Obama qualifies, often alleging he was born in Kenya and that there has been a concerted conspiracy to cover it up.

But Lingle, a Republican, recently said on WABC radio she has had Obama's birth certificate verified.

"I had my health director, who is a physician by background, go personally view the birth certificate in the birth records of the Department of Health," Lingle said. "The president was, in fact, born at Kapi'olani Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. And that's just a fact."