The US Supreme Court turned down an emergency appeal yesterday from a New Jersey man who says that President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.

The court did not comment on its order rejecting the case from Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., who says that since Obama had dual nationality at birth - his mother was American, and his Kenyan father at the time was a British subject - he cannot possibly be a "natural born citizen," one of the constitutional requirements for eligibility to be president.

At least one other appeal over Obama's citizenship remains at the court. Philip J. Berg of Lafayette Hill, Pa., argues that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama says and Hawaii officials have confirmed. Berg says Obama also may be a citizen of Indonesia, where he lived as a boy. Federal courts in Pennsylvania have dismissed Berg's lawsuit, and federal courts in Ohio and Washington state have rejected similar lawsuits.

Allegations raised on the Internet say the birth certificate, showing that Obama was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961, is a fake. But state officials in Hawaii say they checked health department records and have determined there is no doubt Obama was born in Hawaii.

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