On the White House website about this:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/27/president-obamas-long-form-birth-certificate
it says:
“the President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate. They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting.”
I find this peculiar. Obtaining ones own long-form birth certificate is the right of any person. So this business about his counsel needing to request “an exception” to obtain it, raises more questions than answers.