The bill is in for Orly Taitz, the California lawyer leading the “Birther” litigation: $20,000 for sanctionable conduct. U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land previously issued a stern warning to attorney Orly Taitz and others in the so-called “birther” campaign: do not file another such “frivolous” lawsuit or you will face sanctions. Land threw out the lawsuit filed on behalf of Capt. Connie Rhodes who is an Army surgeon challenging her deployment orders due to President Barack Obama’s alleged ineligibility to serve as President. Land (a Bush appointee) noted that “[u]nlike in ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ simply saying something is so does not make it so.” In the most recent order, Land said that Taitz’s conduct “borders on delusional.”
Rhodes previously accused Taitz of filing new papers in Rhodes v. MacDonald without her approval and after she agreed to be deployed by the military. Taitz declared in one filing: “This case is now a quasi-criminal prosecution of the undersigned attorney.” She is already facing a California bar complaint and Rhodes is promising to file a new complaint against her for “reprehensible” representation.
When Rhodes learned that Taitz had filed a motion to stay deployment after she had decided to forego further litigation, she proceeded to fire Taitz by sending a remarkable letter from Office Max on the advice of “Tim who works in the District Clerk’s office.” She stated in the fax:
September 18th, 2009
To the Honorable Judge Land:
Currently, I am shipping out to Iraq for my deployment. I became aware on last night’s local news that a Motion to Stay my deployment had been entered on my behalf. I did not authorize this motion to be filed. I thank you for hearing my case and respect the ruling given on September 16th, 2009. It is evident that the original filing for the TRO and such was full of political conjecture which was not my interest. I had no intention of refusing orders nor will I. I simply wanted to verify the lawfulness of my orders. I am honored to serve my country and thank you for doing the same.
With that I said, please withdraw the Motion to Stay that Ms. Taitz filed this past Thursday. I did not authorize it and do not wish to proceed. Ms. Taitz never requested my permission nor did I give it. I would not have been aware of this if I did not see it on the late news on Thursday night before going to board my plane to Iraq on Friday, September 18, 2009.
Furthermore, I do not wish for Ms. Taitz to file any future motion or represent me in any way in this court. It is my plan to file a complaint with the California State Bar to her reprehensible and unprofessional actions.
I am faxing this as was advised by Tim, who works in the District Clerk’s office. I will mail the original copy of this letter once I have arrived in Iraq.
Respectfully,
CPT Connie M. Rhodes, MD
In her Motion for Leave to Withdrawal as Counsel, Taitz suggested that her client is lying to the Court.
She states that she not only has a (rather obvious) conflict with her former client but may present evidence that is embarrassing to her:
The undersigned attorney comes before this Court to respectfully ask for leave to withdraw as counsel for the Plaintiff Captain Connie Rhodes. The immediate need for this withdrawal is the filing of two documents of September 18, 2009, one by the Court, Document 17, and one apparently by Plaintiff Connie Rhodes, which together have the effect of creating a serious conflict of interest between Plaintiff and her counsel. In order to defend herself, the undersigned counsel will have to contest and potentially appeal any sanctions order in her own name alone, separately from the Plaintiff, by offering and divulging what would normally constitute inadmissible and privileged attorney-client communications, and take a position contrary to her client’s most recently stated position in this litigation. The undersigned attorney will also offer evidence and call witnesses whose testimony will be adverse to her (former) client’s most recently stated position in this case. A copy of this Motion was served five days ago on the undersigned’s former client, Captain Connie Rhodes, prior to filing this with the Court and the undersigned acknowledges her client’s ability to object to this motion, despite her previously stated disaffection for the attorney-client
relationship existing between them. This Motion to Withdraw as Counsel will in no way delay the proceedings, in that the Plaintiff has separately indicated that she no longer wishes to continue to contest any issue in this case. In essence, this case is now a quasi-criminal prosecution of the undersigned attorney, for the purpose of punishment, and the Court should recognize and acknowledge the essential ethical importance of releasing this counsel from her obligations of confidentiality and loyalty under these extraordinary circumstances.Respectfully submitted,
By:_________________________
Orly Taitz, DDS, Esq.
California Bar ID No. 223433
FOR THE PLAINTIFF
Captain Connie Rhodes, M.D. F.S.
SATURDAY, September 26, 2009
“Quasi-criminal prosecution”? The judge had ordered Taitz to “show cause” why a sanction should not be imposed in the case. He had previously told Taitz that he would consider sanctions if she filed similar claims in the future. After the denial of the Motion to Stay deployment, Land said that the latest filing was “deja vu all over again” including “her political diatribe.” He noted:
Instead of seriously addressing the substance of the Court’s order, counsel repeats her political diatribe against the President, complains that she did not have time to address dismissal of the action (although she sought expedited consideration), accuses the undersigned of treason, and maintains that “the United States District Courts in the 11th Circuit are subject to political pressure, external control, and . . . subservience to the same illegitimate chain of command which Plaintiff has previously protested.”
Then the kicker:
The Court finds Plaintiff’s Motion for Stay of Deployment (Doc. 15) to be frivolous. Therefore, it is denied. The Court notifies Plaintiff’s counsel, Orly Taitz, that it is contemplating a monetary penalty of $10,000.00 to be imposed upon her, as a sanction for her misconduct. Ms. Taitz shall file her response within fourteen days of today’s order showing why this sanction should not be imposed.
I am frankly not convinced that sanctions would be appropriate for filing for a motion to stay deployment per se. At the time of his order, Land did not presumably know that the filing was made against the wishes of the client. If Rhodes was interested in appealing Land’s decision, which is her right, a stay is a standard request. However, the fact that the filing may have been made after Taitz was terminated as counsel and after she was told that Rhodes was abandoning the case is more cause for possible sanctions. Moreover, the low quality and over-heated rhetoric of the filing can support such sanctions. Her filings appear more visceral than legal. In demanding reconsideration of the Court’s earlier order, she used language that does cross the line:
This Court has threatened the undersigned counsel with sanctions for advocating that a legally conscious, procedurally sophisticated, and constitutionally aware army officers corps is the best protection against the encroachment of anti-democratic, authoritarian, neo-Fascistic or Palaeo-Communistic dictatorship in this country, without pointing to any specific language, facts, or allegations of fact in the Complaint or TRO as frivolous. Rule 11 demands more of the Court than use of its provisions as a means of suppressing the First Amendment Right to Petition regarding questions of truly historical, in fact epic and epochal, importance in the history of this nation.
She also (as noted by Land in his later order) essentially accused Land of treason, as she has in public statements:
Plaintiff submits that to advocate a breach of constitutional oaths to uphold the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, is in fact a very practical form of “adhering” to those enemies, foreign and domestic, and thus is tantamount to treason, as Defined in Article III, Section 3, even when pronounced in Court. The People of the United States deserve better service and loyalty from the most powerful, and only life-tenured, officers of their government.
Taitz is also facing a California Bar complaint, here. Ohio lawyer (and inactive California bar member) Subodh Chandra wrote the bar, stating “I respectfully request that you investigate Ms. Taitz’s conduct and impose an appropriate sanction. She is an embarrassment to the profession.” For that complaint, click here.
A complaint by a former client would likely attract more attention by the Bar. These are now serious allegations including misrepresentation, false statements to the Court, and other claims that will have to be addressed by a Bar investigation. This could take years to resolve — perhaps just in time for Obama’s second inauguration.
The court ruled that Taitz violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in filing frivolous papers. Declaring the filings as made in “bad faith,” the court concluded that Taitz’s legal conduct was “willful and not merely negligent.” Sanctions were warranted, he held, because “Counsel’s frivolous and sanctionable conduct wasted the Defendants’ time and valuable judicial resources that could have been devoted to legitimate cases pending with the Court.”
“When a lawyer files complaints and motions without a reasonable basis for believing that they are supported by existing law or a modification or extension of existing law, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law,” Land writes. “When a lawyer uses the courts as a platform for a political agenda disconnected from any legitimate legal cause of action, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer personally attacks opposing parties and disrespects the integrity of the judiciary, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer recklessly accuses a judge of violating the judicial code of conduct with no supporting evidence beyond her dissatisfaction with the judge’s rulings, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law, that lawyer ceases to advance her cause or the ends of justice. . .
Regrettably, the conduct of counsel Orly Taitz has crossed these lines, and Ms. Taitz must be sanctioned for her misconduct. After a full review of the sanctionable conduct, counsel’s conduct leading up to that conduct, and counsel’s response to the Court’s show cause order, the Court finds that a monetary penalty of $20,000.00 shall be imposed upon counsel Orly Taitz as punishment for her misconduct, as a deterrent to prevent future misconduct, and to protect the integrity of the Court. Payment shall be made to the United States, through the Middle District of Georgia Clerk’s Office, within thirty days of today’s Order. If counsel fails to pay the sanction due, the U.S. Attorney will be authorized to commence collection proceedings.
I expect that Taitz will appeal the decision, given her past statements. The opinion goes into considerable detail on her conduct and interaction with the court, as shown below.
For the decision, click here.
For the story, click here

Now I know what it feels like to be pecked by a flock of ducks. Sodomists, Acorn and black race of Cain unite against religious white males, and in the case of Orly Taitz, Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, Prajean, Malkin, all extremely beautiful and intelligent conservative women. Racism and sexism against the “white and delightsome” Prajean, Taitz, Bachman, and sultry, fiery, insightful, witty Malkin. Darwinism is false. I have been accused of one sodomite here of blasphemy for using scripture to correctly label wacko Darwinists, leftist fools using the inspired judgment of Paul of the sodomites of his day:
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
(Rom 1:26-32)
.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
(2 Tim 3:16)
Of course the Scriptures are not with the sodomites, therefore they do not use them, because they are incompetent. I am more than competent and what is more, a legal administrator, having been caught up to behold for myself as written in the book “The Revelations of Jesus Christ” (see http://artbulla.com):
FIRST VISION
While journeying on foot about 10:00 P.M. in the east, being inducted into the armed forces the next day, being on the way to the bus station to travel to the armed forces induction station in Raleigh, N.C, I received the following vision, while on the road on foot:
December 29, 1969, while enwrapted in a heavenly vision, It seemed that I, Art Bulla, was removed out of my body, or whether in the body or out of it I could not tell, and I beheld his face, and He spake unto me face to face as one man speaks unto another for forty-five minutes or an hour, and whether in the body or out of it, I could not tell, for I beheld his glory, which surpasses all understanding, and spake while in the vision, in a much better tongue than any spoken by man at this time, which I supposed to be the Adamic Tongue, my understanding being quickened by such might and intelligence and power that it is beyond the mind of man unaided by the Spirit of Revelation which dwells yet within me, to comprehend, and indeed no words can convey, for it seemed that I was transfigured before Him of whom I speak, my God in whom I bear record as others have before me, that He lives, for I too have seen Him. And tongue cannot express his matchless might, glory, power and intelligence, and I shall forever adore his glory, for having once beheld his face and felt of his love and might and power and beheld things which I cannot convey, for there is no language, I must, I MUST obtain his presence, and I shall not be content with anything else, this world or its allurments. And having been ordained unto the Holy Order of God which is after the Order of Melchizedec, even the Holy Apostleship, the keys of which I hold, I bear record of my Father, for I have seen Him and conversed with him, and I testify that He shall return in this the Latter Day as soon as my people are straightened from this crooked and perverse generation which shall be destroyed by the might of his power, and that they be gathered out according to the Revelations which are being given unto me, almost daily at this time, which is one of the darkest periods and most wicked because of unbelief in the history of the earth, that Zion may descend and that the heavens and the earth mingle and become One, as prayed by the Only Begotten, even my brother Jesus of Nazareth. Yea, my Father, I pray that thy will be done and thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Even so. Amen.
“WND also reported, Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro, claimed Obama was born in Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, a testimony reported as fact by several news sources and the myth-busting site Snopes.com.”
Another lie. I tracked this down when bdaman posted it. I found the original source in and article in “Rainbow Newsletter” by a high school reporter. Maya NEVER stated that Obama was born at Queens in the article. The high school kid said that. All the other sources just parroted that false statement.
BOTH medical centers in Honolulu are named for queens. The Kapi’olani Medical Center in Honolulu was named for Queen Kapi’olani. They are often confused by strangers. The Obamas have consistently stated that he was born in Kapi’olani.
And the hospital never scrubbed anything. I found that the letter from Obama saying that he was born there was still posted proudly on their site in their newsletter long after the supposed scrubbing.
Lies, lies, lies.
Is AB channeling birther and bdaman by any chance?
Also, Associated Press has publicly confirmed that the article it originated in 2004 NEVER included the phrase “Kenyan born.” That phrase was inserted by a party or parties unknown.
It has all the credibility of an unripe tomato.
Art Bull, the entire World Nut story is bogus.
So a Kenyan paper called Obama “Kenyan born” in 2004. So what?
Two, repeat, TWO, Hawaiian papers reported Obama’s birth in Honolulu in 1961, the very year of his birth. They based their reports on information received from hospitals furnished by official government agencies, and furnished to the papers by the agencies.
Lawyers and law students at the Turley blog know the “best evidence” rule, and that anonymous, unsourced Kenyan report is as far from the best evidence as you can get.
The birth announcements support the COLB, which is an official “birth certificate” under every known legal definition of that term. Hawaiian officials have stated that their records (which state law protects from disclosure) show that Obama was born in Hawaii. Obama’s grandmother never said he was born in Kenya, since she was mistranslated and the birthers never mention the correct translation.
Art Bull has not answered the fact that World Nut continues to lie about the idea that COLBs can show that foreign born babies were born in Hawaii. That is illegal under Hawaiian law. How about an answer.
Yet another court finds Attorney Taitz’s conduct improper and unethical.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Catalin, patientia nostra!
According to the Judge, “It was improper and unethical for her as an attorney to encourage her supporters to attempt to influence this Court’s decision. Despite these attempts to manipulate this Court, the Court has not considered any outside pleas to influence the Court’s decision.
“Additionally, the Court has received several sworn affidavits that Taitz asked potential witnesses that she planned to call before this Court to perjure themselves. This Court is deeply concerned that Taitz may have suborned perjury through witnesses she intended to bring before this Court.”
More grease for the skids carrying a legal career down the drain.
[The Latin was for Mike Appleton, who knows what it means. Cicero was addressing the Senate in opposition to the Cataline conspiracy, asking “O how long, Catalina, will you abuse our patience?”
“While the Court seeks to ensure that all interested parties have had the opportunity to be heard, the Court cannot condone the conduct of Plaintiffs’ counsel in her efforts to influence this Court.”
See full article with illustrations:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=113004
Obama from Kenya, archived report says
Revives worry about president’s eligibility for office
Posted: October 15, 2009
2:34 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
An archived article from 2004 on Barack Obama’s run for the U.S. Senate in Illinois describes the relative political newcomer as “Kenyan-born,” providing further fuel for speculation over the president’s eligibilty for office.
WND has noted various news reports that have either stated or implied Obama’s birthplace is not Hawaii, as he has claimed, but Africa.
The issue is significant, since there are a number of lawsuits challenging Obama’s eligibility that argue if he was not born in the U.S., he does not meet the requirement in the Constitution that the president be a “natural born” citizen.
WND further has reported on the disagreement among those documenting Obama’s presidency over which Hawaii hospital was his birth place.
Now have come a flood of blog questions and e-mails regarding the apparently archived article from the Sunday Standard in Kenya.
The report starts out, “Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack (sic) Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations.”
The report continues to discuss the allegations against Ryan, Obama’s opponent in his race for the U.S. Senate, and his decision to drop out, virtually handing the Senate seat to the political newcomer.
The article is credited to the wire service Associated Press at the bottom of the page. However, the article could not be found either in the AP archives available to the public online or the archive on the newspaper’s website. WND telephone calls and e-mails to the newspaper did not generate a response.
At the Post & Email blog, writer John Charlton offered several explanations, including the suggestion references to Obama’s birth have been scrubbed.
He wrote that a search of Google for the issue produced unusual results.
“When you attempt to search for ‘Kenyan-born Obama’; results are missing; years prior to 2004 seem scrubbed; and when you click a link to an article in 2000, you get an article in 2004.
“Deliberate sabotage of their own news archive?” he wondered.
He said searching Google for the reference words “Kenyan-born U.S. Senator Obama hopeful” came up with a 1981 New York Times reference, but Obama is not in the article.
“There is no mention of Obama from 1981 to 2000; despite all his ‘work with the poor’ in Chicago,” Charlton continued.
The June 27, 2004, article from the Standard doesn’t appear.
A further link to PBS leads to a story about Obama’s Senate victory, another to USA Today talks about Obama’s father being Kenyan-born and another from 2004 does the same.
“Then, you would not believe it; but all the newspapers in the world, during the period from Jan. 1, 2005 to April 12, 2006, don’t make one mention of Obama! Not even one,” he said.
The bottom line, however, Charlton wrote, should not be what published reports have said, but what proof Obama can provide.
“If Obama cannot show documents which prove he is born in the USA; the mere fact that he has claimed to be born overseas and in the U.S.A.; first at one hospital in Hawaii and then at another; means that nothing he says in court, and no document presented by his campaign could be taken as prima facie evidence of anything.”
Earlier this year, an African news site and an MSNBC broadcaster delivered references to President Obama’s birthplace as being outside of the United States, even as a controversy had developed over a letter purporting to be from the president claiming Kapi’olani Medical Center in Honolulu as his birth location.
Network correspondent Mara Schiavocampo was reporting on the celebratory atmosphere in Accra, Ghana, immediately prior to Obama’s visit to the west African nation.
Interviewing a person who appeared to be a shop operator, she suggested, “Barack Obama is Kenyan … but Ghanaians are still proud of him.”
The video of the report is at this link.
Her report talks about the party atmosphere and the Obama fan clubs who have posted “Welcome home” signs.
(Story continues below)
Meanwhile, a report at Modern Ghana also posted in advance of the president’s visit cited his birthplace on the continent of Africa.
“For Ghana, Obama’s visit will be a celebration of another milestone in African history as it hosts the first-ever African-American President on this presidential visit to the continent of his birth,” the report said.
The Modern Ghana report also cited the expectations that Obama would make a foreign policy pronouncement during his visit.
Kenya’s East African Standard also, in an Aug. 24, 2006, article titled “From Young ‘Barry’ to Top American Senator,” previously said of Obama: “The Harvard Law School and Columbia University graduate was born at the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu in Hawaii, where his parents were studying at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii in Manoa.”
WND also reported, Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro, claimed Obama was born in Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, a testimony reported as fact by several news sources and the myth-busting site Snopes.com.
Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii
But after WND drew attention to a letter from the president declaring as his birthplace the Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu instead, news sources and websites jumped to scrub the Queen’s location and replace it with Kapi’olani.
As WND reported, the White House insists Obama was born in Hawaii but has thus far refused to verify which hospital the president claims as his birthplace or whether the letter – purportedly from President Obama claiming Kapi’olani – is, in fact, real.
The lawsuits over Obama’s eligibility continue in several parts of the country, and in fact a California federal judge has scheduled a trial on the dispute to begin in January.
WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama’s status as a “natural born citizen.” The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
Some of the lawsuits question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama’s American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges have focused on Obama’s citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Complicating the situation is Obama’s decision to spend sums exceeding $1 million to avoid releasing an original long-form state birth certificate that would put to rest the questions.
WND also has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes his kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and his adoption records.
Because of the dearth of information about Obama’s eligibility, WND founder Joseph Farah has launched a campaign to raise contributions to post billboards asking a simple question: “Where’s the birth certificate?”
“Where’s The Birth Certificate?” billboard at the Mandalay Bay resort on the Las Vegas Strip
The campaign followed a petition that has collected more than 475,000 signatures demanding proof of his eligibility, the availability of yard signs raising the question and the production of permanent, detachable magnetic bumper stickers asking the question.
The “certification of live birth” posted online and widely touted as “Obama’s birth certificate” does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same “short-form” document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true “long-form” birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.
Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a “natural born citizen,” no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama’s claim to a Hawaiian birth.
-sted that defense counsel make significant accommodations for her to effect service. Taitz also continually refused to comply with court rules and procedure. Taitz even asked this Court to recuse Magistrate Judge Arthur Nakazato on the basis that he required her to comply with the Local Rules. See Order Denying Pls.’ Mot. For Modification of Mag. J. Nakazato’s Aug. 6, 2009, Order; Denying Pls.’ Mot. to Recuse Mag. J. Nakazato; and Granting Ex Parte App. for Order Vacating Voluntary Dismissal (Sep. 8, 2009). Taitz also attempted to dismiss two of her clients against their wishes because she did not want to work with their new counsel. See id. Taitz encouraged her supporters to contact this Court, both via letters and phone calls. It was improper and unethical for her as an attorney to encourage her supporters to attempt to influence this Court’s decision. Despite these attempts to manipulate this Court, the Court has not considered any outside pleas to influence the Court’s decision.
Additionally, the Court has received several sworn affidavits that Taitz asked potential witnesses that she planned to call before this Court to perjure themselves. This Court is deeply concerned that Taitz may have suborned perjury through witnesses she intended to bring before this Court.
While the Court seeks to ensure that all interested parties have had the opportunity to be heard, the Court cannot condone the conduct of Plaintiffs’ counsel in her efforts to influence this Court.
IV. DISPOSITION
Plaintiffs have expressed frustration with the notion that this case could be dismissed on separation of powers, political question, or standing grounds, asserting that these are mere “technicalities” obstructing Plaintiffs from being able to resolve the case on the merits of President Obama’s birth and constitutional qualifications. As the Supreme Court has stated, “It is indeed a singular misconception of the nature and character of our constitutional system of government to suggest that the settled distinction . . . between judicial authority over justiciable controversies and legislative power as to purely political questions tends to destroy the duty of the judiciary in proper cases to enforce the Constitution.” Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Oregon, 223 U.S. 118, 149-150, 32 S. Ct. 224 (1912). Interpreting the Constitution is a serious and crucial task with which the federal courts of this nation have been entrusted under Article III. However, that very same Constitution puts limits on the reach of the federal courts. One of those limits is that the Constitution defines processes through which the President can be removed from office. The Constitution does not include a role for the Court in that process. Plaintiffs have encouraged the Court to ignore these mandates of the Constitution; to disregard the limits on its power put in place by the Constitution; and to effectively overthrow a sitting president who was popularly elected by “We the People”–over sixty-nine million of the people. Plaintiffs have attacked the judiciary, including every prior court that has dismissed their claim, as unpatriotic and even treasonous for refusing to grant their requests and for adhering to the terms of the Constitution which set forth its jurisdiction. Respecting the constitutional role and jurisdiction of this Court is not unpatriotic. Quite the contrary, this Court considers commitment to that constitutional role to be the ultimate reflection of patriotism.
Therefore, for the reasons stated above, Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
DATED: October 29, 2009
_______________________________
DAVID O. CARTER
United States District Judge
Orly Taitz dissed again! Government defendant’s Motion to Dismiss granted. Case dismissed.
Eat your hearts out, birhers:
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
Captain Pamela Barnett, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
Barack H. Obama, et al.,
Defendants.
CASE NO. SACV 09-0082 DOC (ANx)
O R D E R REGARDING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS
Before the Court is Defendants President Barack H. Obama (“Obama” or “President”), Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton (“Clinton”), Joseph Biden (“Biden”), and Robert Gates’ (“Gates”) (collectively, “Defendants”) Motion to Dismiss. After considering the moving, opposing, reply, and sur-reply papers, as well as the parties’ oral argument, the Court hereby rules as follows.
I. BACKGROUND
A. Introduction
On January 20, 2009, the day on which Barack Obama was sworn in as President and took office, Plaintiffs brought this suit. The action was filed at 3:26 p.m. Pacific standard time, following President Obama’s formal assumption of office. The suit alleges, in pertinent part, that President Obama does not meet the qualifications required for the Office of the President, as specified by Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution, which reads, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.” More specifically, Plaintiffs allege that the President has not shown that he is a “natural born citizen” of the UnitedStates and assert that he should have to establish his citizenship by “clear-and-convincing evidence.” Plaintiffs argue that despite the fact that President Obama has produced a birth certificate from the state of Hawaii, there is evidence to show that the President was actually born in Kenya, thus making him ineligible to be President. Plaintiffs also argue that, even if the President was a natural born citizen, he abandoned his citizenship while living in Indonesia and has not gone through the proper immigration procedures to regain his United States citizenship. Plaintiffs are third party candidates from the American Independent Party for president and vice president in the 2008 presidential election, inactive and active military personnel, and state representatives. The third party candidate plaintiffs are Alan Keyes, Gail Lightfoot, and Reverend Wiley Drake. Keyes and Drake received a total of four-hundredth of one percent of the popular vote for President.
Because Plaintiffs failed to bring their claims in this Court until after President Obama was sworn into office, the Court has been presented with much more than an action against a political candidate asking the Court to interpret the candidate’s qualifications to run for office. Instead, Plaintiffs ask this Court to declare that the current President of the United States is illegitimate and fails to meet the constitutional requirements to hold office. In their Motion to Dismiss, Defendants challenge the ability of the Court to hear Plaintiffs’ claims and redress their alleged injuries through the removal of the sitting President.
B. First Amended Complaint
Plaintiffs have since filed a First Amended Complaint (“Complaint”), which adds to the original complaint and which is the subject of this Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiffs allege that declaratory judgment is proper pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B), and through a civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1988. First Am. Compl. (“Compl.”) ¶ 60, July 14, 2009. Plaintiffs’ Complaint sets forth ten questions for which they request declaratory judgment pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201-2202. Id. ¶¶ 11-21. The questions all relate to the meaning of the Constitution’s natural born citizen clause and the appropriate recourse should a sitting president not meet the “natural born citizen” requirement.
Plaintiffs frame these questions as seeking “an answer to the simple question of constitutional qualifications . . . [and seeking] a declaratory judgment confirming their fundamental civil or constitutional right to ask and know the constitutional qualifications of any person elected or appointed to public office in the United States of America.” Id. 3:8-12. Beyond this “simple question,” however, Plaintiffs make a significantly more expansive request. Plaintiffs seek “injunctive relief against all four office-holding defendants [the President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Vice President] to limit their powers to order new deployments or assignments of any armed forces of the United States outside of the territorial limits of the United States without express Congressional approval, and further to limit the execution of certain orders of the President of the United States relating to the conduct of foreign policy by and through the use of currently deployed and assigned military force, as well as the appointment of judges or justices and the ratification or modification of treaties during the pendency of this lawsuit until and unless Defendant Barack Hussein Obama’s constitutional qualifications are established in this court by clear-and-convincing evidence.” Id. 3:13-22. In other words, Plaintiffs do not propose succession by Vice President Biden but instead seek a complete shutdown of the government by enjoining it from acting while holding a new presidential election.
Plaintiffs also request that the Court order the production of documents pursuant to FOIA. Id. ¶¶ 60-109. Plaintiffs further allege a violation of civil rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1988(a). Id. ¶¶ 110-122. Finally, Plaintiffs make a request for a writ quo warranto, in which Plaintiffs state, “This Court has the power to order Barack Hussein Obama to appear and to show cause all the relief sought by this complaint should not be upheld (or entered) against him.” Id. ¶ 121; see also id. 4:3-19. The prayer for relief states the resolution sought in the action as:
This Court should issue an order to Barack Hussein Obama to show cause why the full measure of relief requested by the Plaintiffs in this case should not be granted, and should in particular order that the contours of the final judgment under 42 U.S.C. § 1988(a), including the extension or modification of common and statutory law to protect the civil rights of the people of the United States to demand clear and- convincing evidence of the constitutional qualifications, elegibility [sic], and competence of their elected (as well as their non-elected [sic]) officials, representatives, and executive agents.
Id. ¶ 126.
II. LEGAL STANDARD
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), a complaint must be dismissed if the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate the claims. Once subject matter jurisdiction is challenged, the burden of proof is placed on the party asserting that jurisdiction exists. Scott v. Breeland, 792 F.2d 925, 927 (9th Cir. 1986) (holding that “the party seeking to invoke the court’s jurisdiction bears the burden of establishing that jurisdiction exists.”). Accordingly, the Court will presume lack of subject matter jurisdiction until the plaintiff proves otherwise in response to the motion to dismiss. Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 511 U.S. 375, 377, 114 S. Ct. 1673 (1994).
Defendants assert that the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction in this action on five bases: (1) Plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate Article III standing; (2) the issues in this action present non-justiciable political questions; (3) this Court is not the appropriate forum for Plaintiffs’ quo warranto claims; (4) this Court does not have subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1988; and (5) Plaintiffs have failed to state a claim with respect to their Freedom of Information Act claims and all claims against Defendants Clinton, Gates, Michelle Obama, and Biden.
III. DISCUSSION
The Court must establish that it has jurisdiction before it may reach the question of interpreting the natural born citizen clause of the Constitution. “[I]f a case can be decided on either of two grounds, one involving a constitutional question, the other a question of statutory construction or general law, the Court will decide only the latter.” Ashwander v. Tenn. Valley Authority, 297 U.S. 288, 347, 56 S. Ct. 466 (1936) (Brandeis, J. concurring) (citing Siler v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 213 U.S. 175, 191, 29 S. Ct. 451 (1909); Light v. United States, 220 U.S. 523, 538, 31 S. Ct. 485 (1911)).
A. Jurisdiction Under Article III
Rule 12(b)(1) mandates that the Court dismiss claims for which it lacks subject matter jurisdiction. Standing is an element of subject matter jurisdiction. Warren v. Fox Family Worldwide, Inc., 328 F.3d 1136, 1140 (9th Cir. 2003). To establish standing under Article III of the Constitution, a plaintiff must demonstrate: “(1) an ‘injury in fact’ – an invasion of a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized,” meaning that the injury must “affect the plaintiff in a personal and individual way,” and (b) “‘actual or imminent,’ not ‘conjectural’ or ‘hypothetical;’” (2) “there must be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of – the injury has to be ‘fairly . . . trace[able] to the challenged action of the defendant, and not . . . th[e] result [of] the independent action of some third party not before the court;’” (3) “it must be ‘likely,’ as opposed to merely ‘speculative,’ that the injury will be ‘redressed by a favorable decision.’” Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S. Ct. 2130 (1992) (internal citations omitted). Each element of standing is “an indispensable part of the plaintiff’s case,” and accordingly “must be supported in the same way as any other matter on which the plaintiff bears the burden, i.e., with the manner and degree of evidence required at the successive stages of the litigation.” Id. at 561.
The caption of the Complaint in this matter lists forty-four (44) plaintiffs. The Complaint does not individually identify the bases for standing for each of these plaintiffs, but alleges generally, “The Plaintiffs are all American citizens, the majority with military service backgrounds (retired or inactive but subject to recall), a number of former and possible or prospective political candidates, including a number of state legislators and third-party candidates for President and Vice-President.” Compl. 3:5-8.
Plaintiffs are comprised of six groups which claim standing: (a) active military personnel; (b) former military personnel; (c) state representatives; (d) federal taxpayers; (e) relatives of President Obama; and (f) political candidates. The Complaint identifies eleven plaintiffs who fall within these groups. Thirty-two of the named plaintiffs are not identified in the Complaint with any particularity. The Court must assume that the remainder of the plaintiffs fall into one of the aforementioned six categories.
The majority of Plaintiffs are addressed through the first prong of Article III standing, which requires that Plaintiffs demonstrate the “invasion of a legally protected interest” which is both “concrete and particularized” and “actual or imminent.” Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560-61.
a. Active Military Personnel
The Complaint alleges that Plaintiff Lieutenant Jason Freese (“Lieutenant Freese”) has standing because he is on active military duty in Alaska. Compl. ¶ 6. The Complaint states that, because Lieutenant Freese is on active military duty, he has standing “to challenge and demand clear-and-convincing proof of the constitutional qualifications of the Commander-in-Chief and the legality of the current chain of command.” Id. Plaintiffs argue that Lieutenant Freese’s standing stems from the oath that military officers are required to take in which they swear to support and defend the Constitution. Pl. P.B.’s Opp’n 9:12-13:19. The oath that all military personnel take when enlisting in the military states as follows:
I, _______, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. 10 U.S.C. § 502.
Plaintiffs rely primarily on Board of Education v. Allen for their argument that Plaintiff has standing as an oath taker. 392 U.S. 236, 88 S. Ct. 1923 (1968). In Allen, Plaintiffs who were serving on the Board of Education took an oath in which they pledged to uphold the Constitution. Id. at 241 n.5. Plaintiffs alleged that if pursuant to that oath they refused to follow a law requiring them to lend books to parochial schools on the basis that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution, then they would face the injury of likely being expelled from office and having state funds to their school district reduced. Id. While the issue of standing was not before the Court, the Court observed in a footnote that it had no doubt that the plaintiffs had a personal stake in the outcome of the litigation. Id. Plaintiffs argue that this action is similar to Allen because Lieutenant Freese has taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and if pursuant to that oath he refused to follow the orders of President Obama on the basis that all orders from the President are unconstitutional because he does not satisfy the natural born citizen clause, then Freese would face the injury of likely disciplinary action within the military.
The footnote regarding standing in Allen is not binding Supreme Court precedent. In addition, the Supreme Court has significantly tightened standing requirements subsequent to the Allen ruling. City of South Lake Tahoe v. Calif. Tahoe Reg. Planning Agency, 625 F.2d 231, 236 (9th Cir. 1980). The Ninth Circuit has rejected the reasoning of the footnote in Allen on the basis that the real source of an oath taker’s complaint is not sufficiently concrete to establish standing. The Ninth Circuit, discussing the standing of oath takers to bring an action for injunctive and declaratory relief regarding the constitutionality of an action, reasoned that oath takers hold merely an abstract objection to an unconstitutional act because they generally face only an abstract injury should they choose to object to the act. Id. at 237. The Court found that the oath takers’ objection was insufficient to invoke standing because “the difficulty with abstract constitutional grievances is that they lack the specificity and adversarial coloration that transmute vague notions of constitutional principle into a form historically viewed as capable of judicial resolution.” Id. at 237-38 (internal quotations and citations omitted). Pursuant to the reasoning under South Lake Tahoe, Plaintiff Lieutenant Freese fails to establish standing based on his military oath because his injuries are not sufficiently concrete to establish Article III standing.
The Complaint also requests that this Court enjoin the President’s “powers to order new deployments or assignments of any armed forces of the United States outside of the territorial limits of the United States without express Congressional approval, and further to limit the execution of certain orders of the President of the United States relating to the conduct of foreign policy by and through the use of currently deployed and assigned military force.” Compl. 3:14-19. This “cut and run” call to lay down arms and leave this country defenseless is an effort by Plaintiffs to emasculate the military.
Plaintiffs have inappropriately requested that this Court interfere with internal military affairs. See Orloff v. Willoughby, 345 U.S. 83, 93-94, 73 S. Ct. 534 (1953) (“[J]udges are not given the task of running the Army.”). Plaintiffs only seek to enjoin acts that the President takes as Commander-in-Chief internationally, not domestically. This peculiarity leads the Court to suspect that the constitutional objection is being used as a veil to avoid deployment to countries where the United States military is currently active, such as Iraq or Afghanistan. See Rhodes v. Thomas D. MacDonald et al., No. 4:09-CV-106 (CDL), 2007 WL 2997605 (M.D. Ga. Sept. 16, 2009) (Plaintiff objecting to President Obama’s natural born citizen status “had no concerns about fulfilling her military obligation until she received orders notifying her that she would be deployed to Iraq in September 2009”). Furthermore, Lieutenant Freese’s claims are based upon the notion that his duty to serve is based upon who is in office. The duty to defend is not dependent upon a political or personal view regarding the individual who serves as President and Commander-in-Chief. It is an unequivocal duty to defend our country.
This Court will not interfere in internal military affairs nor be used as a tool by military officers to avoid deployment. The Court has a word for such a refusal to follow the orders of the President of the United States, but it will leave the issue to the military to resolve.
Plaintiff Freese fails to meet the Article III standing requirements.
b. Former Military Personnel
The Complaint states that all inactive or retired military personnel “have standing to challenge and demand clear-and-convincing proof . . . [because] they are subject to recall and service at any time under and subject to the de facto chain of command.” Compl. ¶ 7. In order for Article III standing to be met, the Supreme Court requires that the injury be “actual or imminent, not ‘conjectural’ or ‘hypothetical,’” and that the injury must be likely, not merely speculative. Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560-61 (citations omitted). Currently, Plaintiffs are inactive in the military and therefore are not subject to any orders from the Commander-in-Chief, President Obama. Therefore, Plaintiffs base their standing on the possibility that they could be called back to service at any time and would at that point have to follow the Commander-in-Chief’s orders. Plaintiffs argue that following such orders would be injurious because they would have to follow the commands of someone who does not meet the requirements to hold the position of Commander-in-Chief. However, the chance that Plaintiffs would be called back to active duty fails to meet the requirement that the injury not be merely hypothetical or speculative. Whether or not Plaintiffs will be called back to active duty depends on future unknown events, and is thereby both hypothetical and speculative. See Bates v. Rumsfeld, 271 F. Supp. 2d 54, 62 (D. D.C. 2002) (where plaintiff challenging the military’s policy of forcing personnel to receive anthrax vaccine was no longer on active duty and the vaccine was only being administered to select units, plaintiff did not meet requirement that injury be concrete and actual or imminent). As such, inactive or former military personnel fail to meet the Article III standing requirements.
c. State Representatives
The Complaint additionally identifies a group of “Plaintiff State Representatives” as having “unique standing.” Compl. ¶ 8. While the Complaint does not specifically identify these representatives serving in the state government, from the caption of the Complaint it appears they are Tennessee Representative Glen Casada; New Hampshire Representative Timothy Comerford; Missouri Representative Cynthia Davis; Missouri Representative Timothy Jones; Tennessee Representative Frank Niceley; and Tennessee Representative Eric Swafford (collectively, the “State Representatives”).
The Complaint alleges that the State Representatives have “a special non-delegable constitutional right and responsibility to verify the qualifications of the Chief Executive Officer of the United States of America who is responsible for allocating large sums of funds, since receipt of funds from any officer without legal authority would be complicity in theft or conversion.” Id. Defendants argue that this allegation is “wholly insufficient to constitute injury-in-fact” because it is “neither actual or imminent” and is “highly speculative.” Mot. 8:13-14. Morever, Defendants assert that the allegation fails to “withstand any logical scrutiny” because the causes of action of theft and conversion require intent. Id. Since Plaintiffs state that they do not know with certainty that President Obama was not born in the United States, they do not have the requisite intent to be held liable for theft or conversion. Id. 8:8-21. In effect, Plaintiffs allege that the State Representatives have standing because they could be held liable for theft or conversion should they accept federal funds pursuant to an unconstitutionally elected president. The threat of liability for theft or conversion against these representatives is highly speculative. See City of South Lake Tahoe, 625 F.2d at 238 (exposure of plaintiffs to civil liability was wholly speculative where no lawsuit was currently threatened); see also O’Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 497, 94 S. Ct. 669 (1974) (“attempting to anticipate” whether respondent will be charged with a crime which will possibly lead to them suffering a constitutional violation takes the Court into “the area of speculation and conjecture”). The State Representatives’ liability for theft or conversion is speculative because it takes multiple logical leaps to assume that the representatives would be prosecuted criminally for theft and conversion for taking funds from the President who has been elected and sworn into office. Because the alleged harm faced by the State Representatives is highly speculative and conjectural, this group also fails to satisfy the standing requirements.
Moreover, to the extent that Plaintiffs allege State Representatives have standing based on an oath to uphold the Constitution, the allegation is insufficient to establish standing under the reasoning of City of South Lake Tahoe, as discussed above.
d. Federal Taxpayers
Plaintiffs argue that they have standing to challenge President Obama’s unconstitutional presidency as federal taxpayers. However, Plaintiffs concede that current Supreme Court precedent would not allow for standing in this situation and that the Court could only find taxpayer standing should it expand the Supreme Court’s holdings. Pl. P.B.’s Opp’n 19:22-20:11. As a basis for this standing, Plaintiffs encourage the Court to expand the Supreme Court holding in Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 88 S. Ct. 1942 (1968). In Flast, federal taxpayers sought to enjoin the expenditure of federal funds by Congress on the purchase of textbooks and other materials for use in parochial schools on grounds that it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Id. at 85. The Supreme Court rejected the Government’s position that standing could never be established on the basis of taxpayer status and held that taxpayer standing could be established if the taxpayer demonstrates “that the challenged enactment exceeds specific constitutional limitations imposed upon the exercise of the congressional taxing and spending power and not simply that the enactment is generally beyond the powers delegated to Congress” by Article 1, Section 8. Id. at 103. The Court stated that it lacked confidence that the issues would be framed with the necessary specificity to establish standing in cases “where a taxpayer seeks to employ a federal court as a forum in which to air his generalized grievances about the conduct of government or the allocation of power in the Federal System.” Id. at 106.
Flast involved the challenge of congressional spending, whereas Plaintiffs in this case appear to be challenging the President’s role in making any executive decisions, presumably including spending, even though Congress, not the President, is granted the taxing and spending power in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. Plaintiffs’ taxpayer standing argument ties into their universal argument that if the President has been elected without meeting the Constitution’s requirements, then every presidential order is unconstitutional. Plaintiffs’ dispute against the President is a generalized grievance, not tied to a specific spending measure in violation of the Constitution. Tellingly, Plaintiffs make no argument pertaining to a particular spending provision, and their argument does not even relate to the limits of the congressional taxing and spending power as discussed in Flast.
Plaintiffs encourage the Court to expand standing grounds, arguing that the reasoning of Flast regarding the Establishment Clause is analogous to the natural born citizen clause because it is “an absolute limitation on the unconstitutional exercise of power by government whose effect (i.e. injury) will always be by definition diffuse rather than particularized.” Pl. P.B.’s Opp’n 20:5-11. Even ignoring the fact that Flast’s holding was limited to Establishment Clause claims which are not present here, Flast clearly required that in order for taxpayer status to create standing, the taxpayer must demonstrate a nexus between the challenged spending and the constitutional right. Hein v. Freedom From Religion Found., Inc., 551 U.S. 587, 605, 127 S. Ct. 2553 (2007) (requiring a “link” between congressional action and constitutional violation). Here, Plaintiffs do not show a nexus between any challenged spending provision passed by Congress and the constitutional requirement that the President be a natural born citizen. See Schlesinger v. Reservists Comm. to Stop the War, 418 U.S. 208, 228, 94 S. Ct. 2925 (1974) (taxpayers did not have standing because they failed to establish a nexus between the challenged act and the constitutional violation where the challenged action was one of the executive branch).
Under Flast, Plaintiffs do not have standing as taxpayers to challenge the President’s qualifications. Furthermore, expanding the Supreme Court’s holding in Flast to the current situation would be contrary to later Supreme Court jurisprudence reaffirming the narrow circumstances in which taxpayer status establishes standing. See, e.g., Hein, 551 U.S. at 615 (rejecting broad reading of Flast and affirming its application only to Congressional action, stating, “in the four decades since Flast was decided, we have never extended its narrow exception to a purely discretionary Executive Branch expenditure.”); Bowen v. Kendrick, 487 U.S. 589, 618, 108 S. Ct. 2562 (1988) (reaffirming Flast and acknowledging that Flast creates only a “narrow exception” to the “general rule against taxpayer standing”). The taxpayer plaintiffs have failed to allege injury-in-fact.
e. Relatives
The Complaint further alleges that Plaintiff Kurt Fuqua (“Fuqua”) has “traced his genealogy to be common with Mr. Obama’s” and that he thereby has standing because of “family relationship” and “concerns of the family medical history.” Compl. ¶¶ 49, 52. The Court finds that Plaintiff Fuqua also fails to satisfy standing requirements based on his alleged familial ties to President Obama. The Complaint alleges that this family relationship, as well as purported concerns Plaintiff has regarding his family medical history, establish standing. Id. ¶ 52. The Court takes this to mean that Fuqua has a greater interest in finding out where President Obama was born than the average citizen. Plaintiff Fuqua’s injury from an allegedly unqualified president is not any greater than the common citizen’s injury simply because he is allegedly related to President Obama.
The “general right” of “every citizen, to require that the government be administered according to law” is insufficient to establish standing. Fairchild v. Hughes, 258 U.S. 126, 129, 42 S. Ct. 274 (1922). Plaintiff’s stake in this controversy as a citizen is no greater than the millions of other United States citizens, and the harm he alleges is too vague. As such, Fuqua has not alleged an injury-in-fact because the grievance of a citizen in the alleged violation of the natural born citizen clause is too generalized. See Hollander v. McCain, 566 F. Supp. 2d 63 (D. N.H. 2008); Berg v. Obama, 574 F. Supp. 2d 509 (E.D. Pa. 2008).
f. Political Candidates
The Complaint alleges that Plaintiffs Wiley S. Drake (“Drake”), Alan Keyes (“Keyes”), Gail Lightfoot (“Lightfoot”), and Markham Robinson (“Robinson”) have “unique political standing” because they appeared on the California ballot as candidates for president or vice president in the 2008 national election. Compl. ¶ 5. Keyes was the presidential nominee for the American Independent Party (also called America’s Independent Party on some ballots) in the 2008 Presidential election, and Plaintiff Drake was the vice presidential nominee for the American Independent Party in the 2008 Presidential election on the California ballot. Pl. W.D.’s Opp’n 1:6-13. Lightfoot was also a vice presidential nominee for the American Independent Party.
Plaintiff Robinson was “a pledged Presidential elector for the American Independent Party in the 2008 Presidential election for the California ballot.” Id. In order to establish injury-in-fact, the injury must “affect the plaintiff in a personal and individual way.” Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560-61 n.1. Defendants argue that the political candidate plaintiffs have failed to establish injury-in-fact because they were not serious enough contenders for the presidency that another candidate’s alleged lack of qualifications for the position could cause them any harm. Notably, President Obama’s primary opponent for the Democratic Party nomination, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and President Obama’s Republican Party opponent, Senator John McCain, did not initiate any suits against President Obama regarding his birth status. These candidates, who were poised to benefit the most from the removal of Obama as a candidate, chose to refrain from bringing suit under the natural born citizen clause. Defendants argue that because the third party political candidates would have lost the election in any event, they have not been harmed by competing against a candidate who did not qualify. Defendants state that the Plaintiffs cannot meet the injury-in-fact requirement because they “cannot counter the argument that, from a simple mathematical analysis, . . . they were not on the ballot in enough states in the 2008 Presidential election to even hope that they could gain the requisite 270 electoral votes to win the Presidency or Vice Presidency of the United States.” Defs.’ Reply 3:6-11. If there should in fact be a dividing line for that is dependent on the likelihood of success in the election, then this is not a case which would hover on that line as Plaintiffs received only four-hundredth of one percent of the vote. The Court may have already met this entire group of voters at the hearings on this matter. In this case, it does seem highly unlikely that the replacement of President Obama with another Democratic nominee such as Hillary Clinton would have resulted in a victory for Plaintiffs Keyes, Drake, or Lightfoot of the American Independent Party. However, creating a dividing line for standing according to chance of success in political elections is, by the nature of our political system, an especially difficult determination because political elections lack predictability and can be greatly affected by a single speech or action of a candidate. At the same time, perhaps it is precisely this unpredictability of political elections that makes the claim of a third party candidate, who received less than one percent of the popular vote in the 2008 national election that did take place, too speculative to establish standing.
In addition, Defendants’ arguments raise obvious slippery slope objections. Would a candidate such as Ross Perot, who received nearly twenty percent of the popular vote but no electoral college votes in the 1992 election, have a sufficiently strong chance of winning the election to establish standing to challenge a major party candidate’s qualifications? At the same time, if every candidate has standing to challenge an opposing candidate, would that include write-in candidates who receive minimal votes? Where to draw the line between which political candidates have standing and which candidates do not have standing to challenge their opposing candidates’ qualifications is an amorphous determination that would need to take into account, at the very least, the number of states in which the candidate was on the ballot.
The Court is troubled by the idea that a third party candidate would not have standing to challenge a major party candidate’s qualifications, while the opposing major party candidate may be able to establish standing because he or she has a better chance of winning the election. Defendants’ argument encourages the marginalization of the voice of a third party in what is a dominantly two-party political system and would require the Court to pass judgment that Plaintiffs are such unlikely candidates that who they are running against would not make a difference. This argument also ignores the tremendous effect that a third-party candidate can have on the presidential election. In 2000, many political commentators opined that should Green Party candidate Ralph Nader not have run for presidential office and received less than three percent of the popular vote, Al Gore would have won the election instead of President George W. Bush. Even when third-party candidates themselves may not have a chance of winning, which candidates they compete against can certainly have an effect on the election results.
Plaintiffs Drake and Robinson argue that it is irrelevant that those candidates which had the most to gain by removing Obama as a candidate, Secretary Clinton and Senator McCain, are not the candidates challenging President Obama. Plaintiffs encourage the Court to reject Defendants’ success-based concept of standing. They make a qualitatively different argument regarding why they have suffered injury as political candidates, an argument that does not require the Court to consider their likelihood of winning the election. Plaintiffs argue that the injury they suffered was the deprivation of the right to run for office on a fair playing field against only candidates who meet the constitutional requirements to serve as President. Under
this theory, the injury is not that of being deprived the chance to win, but being deprived the chance to compete only against “legitimate” candidates. If the Court accepts this concept of injury, then all candidates would have standing to sue the President on the basis that they were all injured by having to compete against him in the national election.
Because the political candidate plaintiffs are the only category of plaintiffs who potentially satisfy the injury-in-fact requirement, the Court will turn to whether the political candidates can satisfy the redressability requirement of the standing analysis and whether the political candidates can further clear the political question and separation of powers hurdles of justiciability.
B. Redressability, Political Question, and Separation of Powers
The third prong of Article III standing requires that the alleged injury be likely to be “redressed by a favorable decision.” Lujan, 504 U.S. at 561 (citations omitted). The redressability prong requires the court to “examine whether ‘the court has the power to right or to prevent the claimed injury.’” Railway Labor Executives Ass’n v. Dole, 760 F.2d 1021, 1023 (9th Cir. 1985) (quoting Gonzales v. Gorusch, 688 F.2d 1263, 1267 (9th Cir. 1985)). While standing generally focuses upon the potential plaintiff and his or her relationship to the alleged harm, the redressability prong of standing turns the focus upon the type of redress that the court is able to offer to the plaintiff. Courts will refrain from finding standing in cases where, regardless of a showing of injury-in-fact, the court would be unable to offer redress that would cure plaintiff’s harm. See Railway Labor Executives Ass’n, 760 F.2d at 1023-24 (plaintiffs failed to satisfy redressability prong where court did not have the power to “fashion[] an enforcement manual for an executive branch agency that was presumably commissioned by Congress to devise its own enforcement strategy”).
Ultimately, Plaintiffs’ alleged injury is having to respect the authority of a president who does not meet the constitutional requirements to hold office. Therefore, Plaintiffs’ injury would only be redressed by the removal of President Obama from office. Plaintiffs thereby ask this Court to intervene and overthrow a president who was elected by “We the People”–over sixtynine million of the people. President Obama was popularly elected. He received the requisite votes from the Electoral College, which were received and counted by Congress with no objections. President Obama took office at noon on January 20, 2009 pursuant to the Twentieth Amendment. He was sworn in on January 20, 2009, and re-sworn in on January 21, 2009, pledging the oath set forth in Article II, Section 1, cl. 8 of the Constitution: “I do solemnly swear(or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” In order for Plaintiffs’ alleged injury to be fully addressed, Plaintiffs would have the Court intervene, upheave the results of a national election, declare the President illegitimate, shut down the functioning of the government of the United States, and leave this country defenseless.
Furthermore, if the Court accepts Plaintiffs Drake and Robinson’s conceptualization of their injury as the harm of being unable to compete in an election with only “legitimate” candidates, redressing the injury of competing in an unfair election would require that the Court order a new national presidential election. Instead of impeachment, which would allow succession by the Vice President and continuation of the order of a functioning government, Plaintiffs seek to shut down the government through an injunction and install a replacement government through a new election. In other words, if the political candidates’ harm is based on their inability to compete against constitutionally qualified candidates, in order to redress that harm the Court would not only have to remove the President, it would have to order a new national election.
The analysis of redressability and political question is significantly different in the context of a sitting president than it would be for a presidential candidate. Therefore, it is a crucial distinction that Plaintiffs’ counsel waited to bring this action until after President
[1 Plaintiffs’ counsel Taitz admitted that the failure to bring a suit before this Court previous to the President’s assumption of office was the fault of counsel due to in-fighting between plaintiffs and between her and counsel Kreep. As stated in the October 5 hearing on this matter:
THE COURT: Just a moment. You didn’t answer my question. Why didn’t you file this case?
MS. TAITZ: Because the plaintiffs wanted to wait for Mr. Kreep.
THE COURT: So that’s a conscious choice on the plaintiffs’ team, then, that you acceded to at that time to put this case in the posture and position of a duly sworn President.
MS. TAITZ: Well, again, Your Honor, not duly sworn President. If one is sworn based on fraudulent information, then the word “duly” wouldn’t. . .
Tr. of Oral Argument 52-53, Oct. 5, 2009.]
Obama’s formal assumption into office.1 See Wilbur v. Locke, 423 F.3d 1101, 1107 (9th Cir. 2005) (quoting Kitty Hawk Aircargo, Inc. v. Chao, 418 F.3d 453, 460 (5th Cir. 2005)) (“‘As with all questions of subject matter jurisdiction except mootness, standing is determined as of the date of the filing of the complaint . . .’”).
Because Plaintiffs did not file this action until the day President Obama took office and was sworn in, any action that this Court takes in this matter is not merely against Senator Obama as a political candidate but against President Obama, this country’s sitting president. In this case, the redressability prong of standing is intimately intertwined with and influenced by another justiciability concept–political question and the separation of powers. Any action taken by the Court would necessarily infringe upon, at the very least, the Executive branch because it would involve a declaration regarding the qualifications of the President. Because the redressability analysis must consider what actions the Court may take against a sitting President, separation of powers concerns regarding the appropriate role of the judiciary sit at the forefront
of the redressability analysis. Plaintiffs have requested both an injunction and a declaratory judgment in the Complaint. Compl. ¶¶ 11-22. Plaintiffs would have the Court reverse the election of President Obama by the American people through a declaratory judgment or injunction that would result in the removal of the President from office. The power of this Court generally to issue an injunction or
[2 The inclusion of the First Lady in this lawsuit, considering she holds no constitutional office, is baffling.]
declaratory judgment against the President is limited at best. The Supreme Court has stated that enjoining a President is an “extraordinary” action that should “raise[ ] judicial eyebrows.” Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U.S. 788, 802, 112 S. Ct. 2767 (1992) (plurality opinion). It has also stated that “in general ‘this court has no jurisdiction of a bill to enjoin the President in the performance of his official duties.’” Id. at 802-03 (quoting Mississippi v. Johnson, 71 U.S. 475, 501 (1866)).
In addition, Plaintiffs have requested that other officials, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, be enjoined. In their original complaint, Plaintiffs also included FBI Director Robert Mueller. While Plaintiffs removed Mueller in their First Amended Complaint following the Court’s suggestion that they narrow and focus their claims, they insisted upon the continued inclusion of the First Lady, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Vice President as Defendants.2 Plaintiffs’ cause of action is against the President and goes to the heart of the President’s ability to hold office. A remedy directed toward any subordinate officials would not redress Plaintiffs’ injury. Therefore, Plaintiffs’ injury could not be redressed through the
injunction of other subordinate executive officials which may be more properly within the power of this Court. See Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 72 S. Ct. 863 (1952). The case of Newdow v. Bush is instructive regarding the power of the Court to issue an injunction or declaratory judgment against the President. In Newdow, the court considered whether plaintiff had standing to seek a preliminary injunction against President Bush restraining him from inviting clergy to give a religious prayer at his inauguration. 355 F. Supp. 2d 265, 268 (D. D.C. 2005). The court observed that issuing an injunction against the President “raises serious separation of powers concerns” and further asserted that “[t]here is longstanding legal authority that the judiciary lacks the power to issue an injunction or declaratory judgment against the co-equal branches of the government–the President and the Congress.” Id. at 280. The court rejected the argument that there should be an exception read into the President’s immunity “where he is claimed to have violated the Constitution.” Id. at 282. Further, the court found that the same considerations foreclosing the possibility of issuing an injunction against the President foreclosed the possibility of issuing a request for declaratory judgment. Id. at 281. In this case, Plaintiffs ask the Court to declare that President Obama is not a constitutionally elected president. Plaintiffs do not ask the Court to enjoin the President from issuing a particular order; they request that President Obama be enjoined from issuing any orders whatsoever and be enjoined from holding the office of President. Plaintiffs make it clear from their briefing that they believe that any order issued by a president who does not satisfy the natural-born citizen clause is unconstitutional. Therefore, in order to cure Plaintiffs’ perceived injury, the Court would need to wade deep into the waters of the President’s official duties–in fact, it would have to declare that the President could no longer perform any official duties. The separation of powers concerns implicated by this request are grave.
Beyond the general power of this Court to issue an injunction or declaratory judgment against the President, the Court must consider its power to take any action removing the President from office. Defendants have argued that the Court cannot suitably redress any injury to Plaintiffs because the Court does not have the power to upseat the President. They further argue that because the Court lacks this power, any declaratory judgment issued by the Court finding that the President was not qualified to hold his office would be a nullity. Removing the President would not only affect the Executive branch, it may also infringe upon the power of the Legislative branch granted by the Constitution in matters of Presidential impeachment and succession. Defendants argue that the Constitution grants Congress the sole power to remove a president through Article I, Sections 2 and 3, which address impeachment, and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, which addresses the removal of the president should he or she be unfit to serve.
The non-justiciability of an action on political question grounds is “primarily a function of the separation of powers” and pertains to “the relationship between the judiciary and the coordinate branches of the Federal Government.” Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 210, 82 S. Ct. 691 (1962). The key inquiry is whether the matter has “in any measure been committed by the Constitution to another branch of government.” Id. at 211. The Supreme Court has set forth factors indicating the existence of a political question:
Prominent on the surface of any case held to involve a political question is found a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department; or a lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards for resolving it; or the impossibility of deciding without an initial policy determination of a kind clearly for nonjudicial discretion; or the impossibility of a court’s undertaking independent resolution without expressing lack of the respect due coordinate branches of government; or an unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made; or the potentiality of embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by various departments on one question. Id. at 217.
Thus, the Court turns to the first factor set forth in Baker v. Carr–whether the Court finds a “textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department.” Id. The natural born citizen clause is couched in absolute terms of qualifications and does not designate which branch should evaluate whether the qualifications are fulfilled. Therefore, the Court necessarily turns to a structural analysis of the Constitution regarding the role of the respective branches of government in deciding the qualifications of a sitting president to hold office.
Three provisions of the Constitution speak to which branch of government has the power to evaluate the qualifications of a president: the Twelfth Amendment, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, and the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution. The Twelfth Amendment provides a role for Congress to make the ultimate determination of who shall be president and vice president through the counting of the electoral votes. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment, which addresses the succession to presidency and vice presidency in the case the president is disabled,
[3 Plaintiffs presume that the words of Emmerich de Vattel, John Jay, and John Armor Bingham alone empower this Court to define the natural born citizen clause. The Complaint conveniently chooses to ignore Congress’ long history of defining citizenship, whether naturalized or by birth. See Charles Gordon, “Who Can be President of the United States: The Unresolved Enigma,” 28 Md. L. Rev. 1, 7-22 (1968) (contrasting 150 years of active Congressional legislation against judicial restraint).]
including by death or resignation, directs that in the case where there is disagreement as to whether the President is able to discharge the powers and duties of his or her office, “Congress shall decide the issue.”
The Twentieth Amendment, known as the “Lame Duck Amendment,” addresses the task of ensuring that someone holds the office of president in the case of the death of a president or the failure of a president to be chosen or qualify by the beginning of his or her term. The Twentieth Amendment provides: “If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.”
Even though these provisions of the Constitution tend to suggest that, at least in some circumstances, it is within the province of Congress to decide whether the President meets the qualifications to serve,3 the Court cannot reach the issue of whether in all cases the interpretation of the natural born citizen clause would present a political question. Instead, because redress of Plaintiffs’ alleged harm would require removal of President Obama, the key analysis is whether the power to remove a sitting president from office is textually committed to another branch. The Constitution grants to Congress the sole power of impeachment of the President. The Constitution reads, “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.” U.S. Const. Art. I, § 3, cl. 6. In Nixon v. United States, when considering the issue of whether the Court could review the manner in which the Senate conducted impeachment proceedings, the Supreme Court focused on the grant of “sole” power to try impeachments to the Senate, noting that the definition of sole is “‘functioning . . . independently and without assistance or interference.’” 506 U.S. 224, 231, 113 S. Ct. 732 (1993). The Court ruled that the text of the impeachment clause indicated a purposeful decision by the Framers to commit impeachment to the Legislative branch. Id. at 235-36.
Furthermore, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment sets forth the line of succession “in case of the removal of the president from office” or in case of his or her death, resignation, or inability to serve. The Amendment specifies a role for Congress in this process, but no role for the judiciary. The combination of Article I and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment leads the Court to conclude that there is a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue of the removal of a sitting president to a coordinate political department–the Legislative branch. In Nixon, the Court also discussed prudential considerations that counseled against judicial review of Senate impeachment proceedings. 506 U.S. at 252 n.4. While Nixon involved the impeachment of a judge, the Court commented on the dangers of judicial review of impeachment of the President:
This lack of finality would manifest itself most dramatically if the President were impeached. The legitimacy of any successor, and hence its effectiveness, would be impaired severely, not merely while the judicial process was running its course, but during any retrial that a differently constituted Senate might conduct if its first judgment of conviction were invalidated.
506 U.S. at 236.
The potential upheaval to this country that would result from a branch other than Congress ruling on the removal of the President weighs heavily in this case as well. The founders of the Constitution created impeachment to allow an orderly process of transition and succession during which the country can continue to function. Plaintiffs’ request, asking this Court to sweep away the votes of over sixty-nine million Americans with the stroke of a pen and order a new election during which the country would be in a state of turmoil, ignores the Constitution’s processes and separation of powers that were developed by the founders. Evaluation of the other Baker v. Carr factors confirms that refraining from taking jurisdiction over this matter is appropriate. Specifically, the factors of (1) “the impossibility of a court’s undertaking independent resolution without expressing lack of the respect due coordinate branches of government;” (2) “an unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made;” and (3) “the potentiality of embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by various departments on one question” all support the impropriety of assuming jurisdiction. 369 U.S. at 217.
At oral argument, Plaintiffs Drake and Robinson encouraged the Court to find that the redressability prong has been satisfied on the basis that President Obama’s removal from office would not require impeachment, which they agree is reserved by the Constitution for Congress. Because President Obama never met the constitutional requirements to run for President, they argue, he was never a valid candidate and could not be validly elected. Because he does not validly hold the office of President, he would not be subject to the Constitution’s requirements regarding the removal of a president from office through impeachment.
Finally, they reasoned that, because whatever alternative process would be required to remove the President is not set forth in the Constitution, it is not clearly reserved for another branch and is therefore within the province of this Court.
There may very well be a legitimate role for the judiciary to interpret whether the natural born citizen requirement has been satisfied in the case of a presidential candidate who has not already won the election and taken office. However, on the day that President Obama took the presidential oath and was sworn in, he became President of the United States. Any removal of him from the presidency must be accomplished through the Constitution’s mechanisms for the removal of a President, either through impeachment or the succession process set forth in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. Plaintiffs attempt to subvert this grant of power to Congress by convincing the Court that it should disregard the constitutional procedures in place for the removal of a sitting president. The process for removal of a sitting president -– removal for any reason -– is within the province of Congress, not the courts.
This case highlights the complicated relationship between the redressability prong of standing and the political question doctrine in cases where the plaintiff’s injuries can only be addressed through a court taking action against another branch of the government. Because the Court finds that it does not have the power nor the right to redress the political candidates’ injury by removing a sitting President from office, the Court does not have jurisdiction as to the political candidates’ claims on the basis that they fail to satisfy the redressability requirement of Article III standing.
Therefore, the Court finds that it lacks jurisdiction because Plaintiffs have failed to establish standing on injury-in-fact and redressability grounds. Plaintiffs’ declaratory relief, injunction, and Section 1983 claims are DISMISSED.
C. Quo Warranto Claims
Plaintiffs encourage the Court to issue a quo warranto writ against President Obama challenging the President’s right to hold his office. The Complaint recognizes that the District of Columbia would be the appropriate district in which to bring this writ, but alleges that bringing this request to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia would be futile because the United States Attorney is biased and Judge Robertson within that district had already rejected a similar case in which President Obama’s qualifications were challenged. Compl. ¶¶ 32 – 35.
The writ of quo warranto must be brought within the District of Columbia because President Obama holds office within that district. The quo warranto provision codified in the District of Columbia Code provides, “A quo warranto may be issued from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in the name of the United States against a person who within the District of Columbia usurps, intrudes into, or unlawfully holds or exercises, a franchise conferred by the United States or a public office of the United States, civil or military.” D.C. Code §§ 16-3501 – 16-3503. Should a person other than the Attorney General of the United States or the United States Attorney wish to bring a quo warranto claim, that person must receive leave of court to do so. Id. at § 16-3502. This leave of court must be granted, according to the text of the statute, by the District Court for the District of Columbia. At oral argument, Plaintiffs encouraged the Court to apply the District of Columbia’s quo warranto statute pursuant to California choice-of-law provisions because the District of Columbia is the residence of Defendants. Plaintiffs’ contention is wholly misplaced because, while this Court can apply the law of other jurisdictions where appropriate, it is precluded from robbing the D.C. court of jurisdiction as to any quo warranto writ against President Obama because the D.C. Code grants exclusive jurisdiction to the District Court for the District of Columbia. Plaintiffs’ quo warranto demand is hereby DISMISSED for improper venue.
D. Discovery and Freedom of Information Act Claims
Plaintiffs argue that they have been ignored by several government agencies in their quest to receive Obama’s long-form Hawaiian birth certificate and other information such as his passport records. See Compl. ¶¶ 86 – 109. Plaintiffs have indicated that they plan to seek extensive discovery in this case, including the deposition and appearance in court of President Obama and the request through a letter rogatory to the government of Kenya for the birth certificate that they allege proves he was born in Kenya. See Mot. for Issuance of Letters Rogatory for Authentication of Kenyan Birth Certificate (Aug. 1, 2009); Special Mot. For Leave to Conduct Pre-R. 26(f) Discovery (Aug. 1, 2009) (“Plaintiffs . . . intend on taking the following depositions: a. Barack Hussein Obama; b. Cheryl Fukino; c. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi; d. Commissioner of Social Security; e. All other Defendants . . .”). Plaintiffs appear to assume that should the Court receive a document from Kenya, the Court would give credence to this document over the American birth records of the President and the case would be resolved. Even should the Court permit the issuance of a letter rogatory to Kenya, the Court would still engage in a comparative exercise in which the records of America, which has historically maintained some of the most credible recordkeeping practices in the world, would be contrasted with the credibility of the records obtained from Kenya. Such an analysis would seemingly favor the records of the United States.
As support for their right to these documents, Plaintiffs purport to state a claim under the Freedom of Information Act. The Complaint states, “The Plaintiffs as a group may not have adhered closely or precisely to the letter of FOIA in all of their approaches to the current administration for information, but this court has assured them that the present case will be decided on its legal merits and factual substance, and not on procedural irregularities.” Compl. ¶ 59. In Plaintiffs’ briefing, they state, “Plaintiffs can and do allege exhaustion of FOIA requirements as a practical and substantive matter.” Pl. P.B.’s Opp’n 8:27-28.
However, even ignoring the fact that Plaintiffs appear to admit that they have not complied with FOIA requirements in their requests for information, Plaintiffs’ claim fails because FOIA does not apply to Defendants. FOIA only applies to entities qualifying as an “agency.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2). The statute defines “agency” as, “any executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency.” Id. at § 551(1). The Executive Office of the President is an agency within the Executive branch and is a body separate from the President himself. All of the Defendants–President Obama, Michelle Obama, Secretary Clinton, Vice President Biden, and Secretary Gates–are individuals, not agencies. Therefore, Plaintiffs fail to state a claim against these individuals under FOIA and the claim is hereby DISMISSED.
E. Claims Against the Remaining Defendants
Plaintiffs have also named Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joseph Biden, and Robert Gates as defendants. Plaintiffs made overtures at pleading a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) claim under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961 et seq. against all Defendants. However, the pleading only states that while Plaintiffs had “accumulated several dossiers of evidence” suggesting a civil RICO conspiracy, they were unable to actually set forth a RICO pleading “[b]ecause of the complexity of RICO.” Compl. ¶¶ 123-25. Plaintiffs originally filed this action on January 20, 2009, and the First Amended Complaint at issue was filed on July 15, 2009. Nearly six months was more than sufficient time for Plaintiffs to at least attempt to set forth civil RICO allegations. The failure to do so is inexcusable, and as Plaintiffs have failed to state any claim whatsoever against Defendants Michelle Obama, Clinton, Biden, and Gates, all claims against them are DISMISSED.
F. Conduct of Plaintiffs’ Counsel
The hearings have been interesting to say the least. Plaintiffs’ arguments through Taitz have generally failed to aid the Court. Instead, Plaintiffs’ counsel has favored rhetoric seeking to arouse the emotions and prejudices of her followers rather than the language of a lawyer seeking to present arguments through cogent legal reasoning. While the Court has no desire to chill Plaintiffs’ enthusiastic presentation, Taitz’s argument often hampered the efforts of her cocounsel Gary Kreep (“Kreep”), counsel for Plaintiffs Drake and Robinson, to bring serious issues before the Court. The Court has attempted to give Plaintiffs a voice and a chance to be heard by respecting their choice of counsel and by making every effort to discern the legal arguments of Plaintiffs’ counsel amongst the rhetoric. This Court exercised extreme patience when Taitz endangered this case being heard at all by failing to properly file and serve the complaint upon Defendants and held multiple hearings to ensure that the case would not be dismissed on the technicality of failure to effect service. While the original complaint in this matter was filed on January 20, 2009, Defendants were not properly served until August 25, 2009. Taitz successfully served Defendants only after the Court intervened on several occasions and reque
Good work, Mike and Slart.
Art said: “In order to be “natural born” as per the definition used at the time of the writing of the Constitution, one had to be NOT ONLY born in the United States , but BOTH parents are required to be born in the United States to qualify for the office of President of the United States.”
That is a lie.
There is no requirement ANYWHERE in the Constitution that says a President must have both parents born in the United States, or that both parents must be citizens.
If Art Bulla can find anything in the Constitution, let it be posted here. It is going to be a long wait. There is NOTHING in the text of the Constitution that supports that position. Is Bulla claiming that the parents must not only be citizens, but also natural born citizens, themselves? It is doubtful whether Bulla even thought about that point. The ignorance of the Constitution is monumental.
No Supreme Court case or any other case has ever said that. The Supreme Court in Wong Kim Ark ruled that babies born in the United States to alien parents are citizens from birth, and are just as much citizens as the children of United States citizens.
This is a legal blog run by a Constitutional Law Professor, so false statements about the Constitution do not survive very long here.
Art Bulla has no basis for these statements.
Art Bulla,
You have committed the mortal sin of blasphemy by taking the name of the Lord in vain, by using the bible to make a political statement. You have also put other God’s before the Lord in putting the Conservative Movement on the same level as God’s Holy Books. You are a blasphemer also because you misinterpret those books for a political (Caesar’s)purpose.
Jesus said “Render unto Caesar that which is Caeser’s, render up to the Lord that which is God’s.” You have rendered unto Caesar that which is the Lord’s. You have sinned and I sincerely pray for your repentence, lest you spend all of eternity as damned.
Art,
While you are clearly a hate filled troll spewing lies either intentionally or out of ignorance, I thought I would reply to your vile little screed anyway.
You said:
“This is not a “party, but a lynching. The left now are racist against honorable, upright white individuals, and the left being traitors to their race, the Constitution, and the heavens, crucify the Lord afresh by proxy in their wickedness and corruption, being Darwinists there is no absolute truth at all with them, they vilify without being moored in reality at all:”
I’m not sure who you are quoting here (or, in fact, what comprises the quote here since there is no close quote), so I’ll just assume you’re saying it all. Your comment about the left being traitors to their race implies that the left is only comprised of white people which seem to whiff of more than a little hypocrisy to me – certainly not the last time you commit this transgression. 😉 I’m not sure what the point of the rest of your rant and the bible verse is about, but I’m a scientist who is aware of the fact that evolution is the best theory at explaining the scientific data and that there are no competing scientific theories at all – if you think that makes me a ‘Darwinist’ (whatever that’s supposed to mean) fine, I really don’t care about the labels you want to put on me in your sad, little mind. As for the bible verse, I will give weight in a legal discussion to you quoting bible verses when you either prove to me that you have never worn clothing made from two different fabrics or let yourself be stoned (and not in the good way…) and until then, I’ll just ignore it.
You said:
“The left lie without let, their consciences being seared with a hot iron.”
I’m always impressed at how people of your ilk try to paint the opposition with their own sins.
“A certificate of live birth is not a birth certificate.”
No, but it is prima facia evidence that President Obama was born in Hawaii. (And the only such evidence generally available from the Hawaii DOH.)
“Persons were able to get a certificate of live birth solely upon the testimony of one parent.”
Maybe, so what?
“In order to be “natural born” as per the definition used at the time of the writing of the Constitution, one had to be NOT ONLY born in the United States , but BOTH parents are required to be born in the United States to qualify for the office of President of the United States.”
This sentence has some serious problems both in fact and in structure. I’ll leave figuring out why this is a bad sentence structurally to you, but as Vince (and others) have painstakingly pointed out in this thread and its predecessors, the definition of ‘natural born’ at the time of the Constitution came from English common law and required only birth on native soil, regardless of parentage. The SCOTUS has never clarified the definition (although it’s rulings clearly support the English common law definition over your (or de Vattel’s) definition).
“At the time of Barrack Obama’s birth, his father was a citizen of the British Empire.”
Yes, so what?
“Therefore even if he was born in Hawaii (which the ambassador to Kenya says is not true, there being a monument erected in Kenya to his birth, and to which his grandmother testifies as being an eyewitness: that he was born in Kenya) he still would not qualify as being “natural born” since BOTH PARENTS WERE NOT BORN IN THE UNITED STATES.”
This sentence is just not true (see the entire above thread and two or three of its predecessors and pay special attention to posts by Vince Treacy if you are interested in why this is so). As for the parenthetical comment, I’m unaware of what statement by the ambassador to Kenya you are referring to, but I’ll bet that Vince could debunk it in under 5 minutes if he wanted to, but if you listen to the unedited version of the interview (and understand Luo) with President Obama’s grandmother (actually not his grandmother but the wife of his grandfather, I believe) you will hear her correct this misunderstanding and say he was born in Hawaii.
“So whom should the people believe? Perverted leftists such as yourselves, whose politics are driven by your sexual depravity, constant liars, or our lying eyes and ears?”
Well, after reading all of the posts in this thread and its predecessors, following most of the links to sites supporting both sides of the argument it seems crystal clear to me that any rational person should believe that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural born citizen of the United States and thus eligible to hold the office of POTUS. I don’t really care about what perverted sexually deviant activities you engage in (as long as they’re between consenting adults or inanimate objects) and you can’t hardly write a sentence without at least one lie in it, so I’ll believe what my eyes, ears, and reasoning ability tell me to be true and not the toxic bile that you and WND spew.
What you and all of your birther friends should understand is that even if we somehow stumble into some alternate reality and one of these cases proceeds to trial (and I believe Vince’s written predictions (I don’t know how to do the trademark thingy, sorry) of ‘case dismissed’ on this matter) the first thing that would likely happen is judicial recognition of the COLB or statements by Hawaii DOH officials, thus officially establishing President Obama’s birth in Hawaii and if you’re really lucky the court will also establish the English common law definition of natural born citizen as the correct one. So no matter how things proceed from this point on, the only thing you and your ilk have in store is bitter disappointment because fortunately our judges uphold the Constitution and understand the law, the only question is will any case actually pass the hurdles of standing and justicability (sp? – I sympathize with Judge Carter) to lose based on the evidence and arguments? I suspect even this is too much to ask of legal luminaries like Orly Taitz and friends – although I would love to see Orly argue this case (I can just imagine the drinking game – drink whenever Orly calls someone a traitor (double for the judge), drink when she insults co-counsel, finish the bottle when she’s fined…). Now unless you have anything substantive to add to the conversation (which it’s pretty clear you don’t – or you’re hiding it very, very well), would you please stop waving your ignorance all over.
Everyone else,
Sorry about feeding the troll, but he seemed to need a beat down and after months of following the debate over health care reform, I’ve lost my patience for fools…
@AY: Not that I’m aware of 🙂
Alan,
Are you Formerly Known as Bdaman?
The whole birther movement God’s gift to Obama, cause if they weren’t obsessing on that, it would be something else. So let ’em go. I hope they keep at until their puny little brains overload and they have to be chemically lobotomized.
This is not a “party, but a lynching. The left now are racist against honorable, upright white individuals, and the left being traitors to their race, the Constitution, and the heavens, crucify the Lord afresh by proxy in their wickedness and corruption, being Darwinists there is no absolute truth at all with them, they vilify without being moored in reality at all:
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Rom 1:28-32)
The left lie without let, their consciences being seared with a hot iron. A certificate of live birth is not a birth certificate. Persons were able to get a certificate of live birth solely upon the testimony of one parent. In order to be “natural born” as per the definition used at the time of the writing of the Constitution, one had to be NOT ONLY born in the United States , but BOTH parents are required to be born in the United States to qualify for the office of President of the United States. At the time of Barrack Obama’s birth, his father was a citizen of the British Empire. Therefore even if he was born in Hawaii (which the ambassador to Kenya says is not true, there being a monument erected in Kenya to his birth, and to which his grandmother testifies as being an eyewitness: that he was born in Kenya) he still would not qualify as being “natural born” since BOTH PARENTS WERE NOT BORN IN THE UNITED STATES. So whom should the people believe? Perverted leftists such as yourselves, whose politics are driven by your sexual depravity, constant liars, or our lying eyes and ears?
Mike S. and Vince,
Good work and exposing Art’s true colors. Facts are a very messy problem for trolls so they just don’t bother with them.
Art has just put up another troll posting, simply pasting up a Worst Nut Daily article.
The only “news” is that Mario Apussi has filed a notice of appeal in the case that was dismissed, above at Oct. 21, 2009 12:07 pm.
That is all.
The Nut article is full of discredited information.
Just for one, 2d para from last: “The “certification of live birth” posted online and widely touted as “Obama’s birth certificate” does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same “short-form” document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii.”
This is an outright lie. It is repeated in EVERY Nut article. It is false. A law that was passed in 1982, but that was not on the books in 1961, allows Hawaiian parents, like those who have adopted children, to obtain an Hawaiian birth certificate for use for drivers’ licenses and all other purposes.
But those certificates can only list the true place of birth. They cannot list birth in Hawaii. The Hawaiian official have explained this.
So Art the troll has repeated a lie. But do not expect anyone to admit this.
Art Bulla,
You are late to this party. If you read through all of the past posts on this thread you will realize that all you say has already been disproven. Oh wait, I’m sorry. you’re not the reading type are you? More like another troll on the make. your presences here is merely to keep a moronic idea going and to fuel your own hatred and stupidity. Have a nice day.
Appeal filed in Obama eligibility argument
‘Court cannot refuse to hear a case because it prefers not’
Posted: October 27, 2009
8:43 pm Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
A case alleging Congress failed in its constitutional duties by refusing to investigate the eligibility of Barack Obama to be president has been sent on appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
WND previously reported when a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by Charles F. Kerchner Jr. and others against Congress.
Attorney Mario Apuzzo filed the action in January on behalf of Kerchner, Lowell T. Patterson, Darrell James Lenormand and Donald H. Nelson Jr. Named as defendants were Barack Hussein Obama II, the U.S., Congress, the Senate, House of Representatives and former Vice President Dick Cheney along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The case focuses on the alleged failure of Congress to follow the Constitution. That document, the lawsuit states, “provides that Congress must fully qualify the candidate ‘elected’ by the Electoral College Electors.”
The case asserts “when Obama was born his father was a British subject/citizen and Obama himself was the same.”
(Story continues below)
The Constitution provides, the lawsuit says, “If the president-elect shall have failed to qualify, then the vice president elect shall act as president until a president shall have qualified.”
See the movie Obama does not want you to see: Own the DVD that probes this unprecedented presidential eligibility mystery!
“There existed significant public doubt and grievances from plaintiffs and other concerned Americans regarding Obama’s eligibility to be president and defendants had the sworn duty to protect and preserve the Constitution and specifically under the 20th Amendment, Section 3, a Constitutional obligation to confirm whether Obama, once the electors elected him, was qualified,” the case explained.
The attorney now has posted online a notice of his appeal to the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia.
“Through his dismissal, Judge Simandle avoided having to reach the merits of the question of whether Obama is an Article II ‘natural born citizen’ and eligible for the office of president and commander in chief,” Apuzzo said.
“We allege that Obama has not conclusively proven that he was born in Hawaii. More importantly, we also allege that he is not an Article II ‘natural born Citizen’ because when Obama was born his father was a British subject/citizen and Obama himself was the same.”
The lawyer said it is important that the court did not rule Obama was born in Hawaii, nor did it rule that the claim was frivolous.
It simply said the case was dismissed because of a jurisdiction issue.
“By the court finding that plaintiffs do not have standing and that their claims present a political question, the court was able to avoid having to address the underlying merits of the Kerchner case. With such a decision, the American people unfortunately still do not know where Obama was born and whether he is an Article II ‘natural born Citizen’ and therefore constitutionally eligible to be president and commander in chief,” the attorney said.
“A court cannot refuse to hear a case on the merits merely because it prefers not to due to grave social or political ramifications,” he continued. “The court’s opinion dismissing the Kerchner complaint/petition did not address the real Kerchner case but rather looked for a way to dismiss the case without having to reach the merits of the question of whether Obama is an Article II ‘natural born citizen.’
“The American people deserve to know whether Obama was in fact born in Hawaii. More importantly, even if he is born in Hawaii, given that he was born with dual allegiance and citizenship, the American people deserve to know whether he is an Article II ‘natural born citizen’ which would make him eligible to be president,” the attorney said.
WND had reported only days earlier when Kerchner publicly argued that the courts have an obligation to make a decision on Obama’s eligibility.
He wrote, “The federal courts and judges are committing treason to the Constitution by not taking jurisdiction and getting to the merits in the various cases before them regarding the Article II eligibility clause question for Obama.”
He said his basis for such a statement is the opinion of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, who wrote in an 1821 case, Cohens vs. Virginia:
“It is most true that this court will not take jurisdiction if it should not: but it is equally true, that it must take jurisdiction if it should. The judiciary cannot, as the legislature may, avoid a measure because it approaches the confines of the constitution. We cannot pass it by because it is doubtful. With whatever doubts, with whatever difficulties, a case may be attended, we must decide it, if it be brought before us. We have no more right to decline the exercise of jurisdiction which is given, than to usurp that which is not given. The one or the other would be treason to the constitution. Questions may occur which we would gladly avoid; but we cannot avoid them. All we can do is, to exercise our best judgment, and conscientiously to perform our duty. In doing this, on the present occasion, we find this tribunal invested with appellate jurisdiction in all cases arising under the constitution and laws of the United States. We find no exception to this grant, and we cannot insert one.”
Kerchner added, “The … judges in the … cases should simply read the words of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Marshall from the past and take jurisdiction of the constitutional question of the Article II eligibility clause in the Constitution and proceed to a fact finding hearing and trial on the merits.
WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama’s status as a “natural born citizen.” The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
Some of the lawsuits question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama’s American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges have focused on Obama’s citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Further, others question his citizenship by virtue of his attendance in Indonesian schools during his childhood and question on what passport did he travel to Pakistan three decades ago.
Adding fuel to the fire is Obama’s persistent refusal to release documents that could provide answers and the appointment – at a cost confirmed to be at least $1.7 million – of myriad lawyers to defend against all requests for his documentation. While his supporters cite an online version of a “Certification of Live Birth” from Hawaii as his birth verification, critics point out such documents actually were issued for children not born in the state.
The ultimate questions remain unaddressed to date: Is Obama a natural born citizen, and, if so, why hasn’t documentation been provided? And, of course, if he is not, what does it mean to the 2008 election or the U.S. Constitution if it is revealed that there has been a violation?
WND has reported on another case, being heard by U.S. District Judge David Carter in California. He released a ruling noting the government’s motion to dismiss was being taken “under submission.” But he also approved a final calendar for the case to be proceeding in his court.
Under the schedule ordered by the judge the final pretrial conference is scheduled Jan. 11, 2010, while the jury trial is Jan. 26, 2010.
WND also has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes his kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and his adoption records.
Because of the dearth of information about Obama’s eligibility, WND founder Joseph Farah has launched a campaign to raise contributions to post billboards asking a simple question: “Where’s the birth certificate?”
“Where’s The Birth Certificate?” billboard at the Mandalay Bay resort on the Las Vegas Strip
The campaign followed a petition that has collected more than 475,000 signatures demanding proof of his eligibility, the availability of yard signs raising the question and the production of permanent, detachable magnetic bumper stickers asking the question.
The “certification of live birth” posted online and widely touted as “Obama’s birth certificate” does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same “short-form” document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true “long-form” birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.
Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a “natural born citizen,” no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama’s claim to a Hawaiian birth.
borderraven: “Why the ignorance of the US Constitution?”
To which provisions of the Constitution does this ignorance apply?
If you have any specific provisions that we have ignored, why not point them out and give us a chance to look into them and see if there is any merit to your contentions? We will be glad to look them up, take a look at the history and the court cases, and discuss them.