i thought public figures could be researched and their records opened...some article implied that millions must have been spent to seal his records.
Public figure's records have the same privacy protections that the rest of us have, so Obama need do nothing to keep them "sealed" (private).
What Orly and others have tried to do is to get access to private records by court order, in other words, unseal them, by claiming the records are relevant to their lawsuits. However, in order to proceed with their lawsuits they have to get over the hurdle of standing which is narrowly defined:
STANDING - The legal right to initiate a lawsuit. To do so, a person must be sufficiently affected by the matter at hand, and there must be a case or controversy that can be resolved by legal action.
There are three requirements for Article III standing: (1) injury in fact, which means an invasion of a legally protected interest that is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical; (2) a causal relationship between the injury and the challenged conduct, which means that the injury fairly can be traced to the challenged action of the defendant, and has not resulted from the independent action of some third party not before the court; and (3) a likelihood that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision, which means that the prospect of obtaining relief from the injury as a result of a favorable ruling is not too speculative.
http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/s064.htm
The lawyers for Obama show up in court to prevent a default judgment and further court action.
default judgment n. if a defendant in a lawsuit fails to respond to a complaint in the time set by law (usually 30 days), then the plaintiff (suer) can request that the default (failure) be entered into the court record by the clerk, which gives the plaintiff the right to get a default judgment. If the complaint was for a specific amount of money owed on a note, other money due, or a specific contract price (or if the amount due is easy to calculate) then the clerk of the court can enter a default judgment. If proof of damages or other relief is necessary, a hearing will be held in which the judge determines terms of the default judgment. In either case the defendant cannot speak for himself/herself. A defendant who fails to file an answer or other legal response when it is due can request that the default be set aside, but must show a legitimate excuse and a good defense to the lawsuit.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Default+Judgment
Presidents get sued all the time necessitating the services of lawyers who often provide their services pro bono so its not clear that Obama has spent any money at all on these suits.
When Orly complains that her cases have not been heard on their merits, she is either being disingenuous or ignorant. Her case have no merit to begin with; they do not get past the hurdle of standing.