Is Barack Obama a U.S. citizen or not?

We thought this question was put to bed for good before the presidential election, when the Obama campaign posted a "Certificate of Life Birth" on its "Fight the Smears" site. But the Internet is still rife with some rumors that he’s not, and that the birth certificate provided by the Obama campaign months ago wasn’t the real deal.

The debate is getting even more heated given that the U.S. Supreme Court justices on Friday are scheduled to conference. It’s expected they will discuss whether to move forward on a case brought by Leo C. Donofrio against the New Jersey secretary of state, which essentially questions Obama’s citizenship and, therefore, his candidacy. It’s highly unlikely the justices will think the case has enough merit to formally consider.

The We the People Foundation took out a full-page ad in The Chicago Tribune on Monday and Wednesday of this week, called, "Open Letter to Mr. Obama." It’s a "formal Petition for a Redress (Remedy) for the alleged violation of the ‘natural born citizen’ clause of the Constitution of the United States of America."

"Mr. Obama is respectfully requested to direct the Hawaiian officials to provide access to his original birth certificate on December 5-7 by our team of forensic scientists, and to provide additional documentary evidence establishing his citizenship status prior to our Washington, D.C. press conference on December 8," the foundation says.

Now, several reputable fact-checking sites have verified the authenticity of the birth certificate, as have Hawaiin officials – several times.

In response to the Tribune ad, the newspaper itself on Wednesday offered several bulleted facts to refuse the charges put forth by We the People.

AOL’s Political Machine has a Q&A with the foundation’s chairman, Robert Schulz. The group - and some right-wing Web sites - want the president-elect to put the issue to bed and produce the real birth certificate (even though the "real" one has already been vouched for).

"In the end, there is no practical reason why Obama refuses to produce his original birth certificate," Schulz said. "He is seeking the office of president and has a duty to provide evidence that he meets the explicit requirements established by the Constitution."

We haven’t seen any comment from the Obama campaign on this lately. They likely have better things to do - such as prevent the economy from sliding into a depression, and little things like that.