Fact Check: Obama documents might not have been released, but they aren't sealed

Fact Check: Obama documents might not have been released, but they aren't sealed

AP

President Obama smiles at supporters during a campaign rally Saturday, Sept. 8 in Seminole, Fla.

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Latest by Bigguy 13 weeks 2 days ago

Times-Union readers want to know:
I keep hearing that President Barack Obama's records have been sealed and that's why there are so many secrets about him. Is this true?
This viral email contains a graphic that lists various parts of Obama's life, which supposedly are sealed: college records, a thesis paper, Selective Service registration, Illinois state Senate records and schedule, law practice client list, birth certificates and baptism record.
Most of these issues have come up as separate emails, but this viral message is probably appearing now because the presidential campaign is nearing an end.
As FactCheck.org points out, the word “sealed” usually means a judge has ruled that records normally open to the public cannot be released without court permission. You usually hear about sealed documents when they pertain to juvenile arrest records, some divorce proceedings or adoption records.
In this case, some of the items on the list are open for anyone to see.
The other documents supposedly sealed are records that Obama has not released — but neither have other presidential candidates in the course of their campaigns.
FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan fact-finding project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, researched the list:
COLLEGE RECORDS
These aren’t sealed; Obama hasn’t released them, and schools aren’t allowed to release any student records to reporters or the public. Although George W. Bush’s grades at Yale were leaked to New Yorker magazine, according to various news accounts, the president himself did not give permission to release them. Other candidates for office, such as Rick Perry, have had their college transcripts leaked by someone — in this case to the Huffington Post — but Perry did not release them.
THESIS PAPER
Obama did write a paper on nuclear disarmament during his senior year, FactCheck.org states, but it wasn’t a thesis that a master’s or Ph.D candidate would have to defend.
During the 2008 campaign, Columbia told reporters that it did not have a copy of the paper, Obama said he didn’t either and Obama’s former professor Michael Baron said he probably threw the paper out in an earlier move.
SELECTIVE SERVICE
Obama’s registration is public. Daniel Amon, public affairs specialist with the Selective Service, confirmed to the media that he registered for the draft at a post office in Hawaii on Sept. 4, 1980 and was given No. 61-1125539-1, FactCheck.org reports. Even though rumors persist that he never registered for the draft, or his registration was falsified, there has been no factual evidence of that.
MEDICAL RECORDS
Obama has done what other presidents have done and released results of his physical exams, as reported by numerous media outlets. The most recent was released on Oct. 31, 2011, and signed by his doctor, Jeffrey C. Kuhlman.
STATE SENATE RECORDS
These are all public. You can read Obama’s comments during debate at the Illinois General Assembly’s website at www.ilga.gov. FactCheck.org points out, however, that if Obama kept a personal appointment calendar as an Illinois state senator, the calendar might still be private — but that’s private, not sealed.
LAW FIRM CLIENTS
Citing client confidentiality, Obama has not released a list of clients he represented while with the Illinois law firm then known as Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Gallard, although he did disclose the firm’s client list while he was in the state Senate. Media seeking the specific list of Obama’s clients have questioned whether merely the fact of representation is confidential; indeed, district courts in Illinois have ruled just the opposite when it pertains to attorneys’ billing statements or checks, which would surely show clients. Still, the list has not been released — but, again, it is not sealed.
BIRTH CERTIFICATE
While this remains a controversial subject, what have been identified as Obama’s short- and long-form birth certificates have been released and Hawaiian officials have long maintained that Obama was born there.
BAPTISM RECORD
If there is such a document, it hasn’t surfaced yet, or Obama has not released it. Undisputed news accounts report that Obama was baptized in 1988 in Trinity United Church of Christ, where the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was minister.
ENDORSEMENT?
The graphic in the viral email also states that the Communist Party of the U.S. endorses Obama. The party supports the president, but Obama did not seek that endorsement, nor has he endorsed the party.