Posted on 01/31/2010 4:42:58 PM PST by STARWISE
Activists charge that Obama has spent millions to silence them in court. Not exactly, say the government’s lawyers.
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Is President Barack Obama spending millions of dollars to hide the truth about his citizenship?
During Obama's 2008 run for the White House, his campaign and a host of other credible sources repeatedly debunked the conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, and was thus ineligible to serve as president.
But this failed to quell the "birther" movement, whose acolytes have filed more than 60 civil lawsuits challenging the president's citizenship. None of these suits have gone anywhere in court.
But birthers say that's because Obama has unleashed a phalanx of powerful lawyers to silence them—spending $1.7 million in the process, according to WorldNetDaily (WND), an enthusiastic online promoter of the birthers' cause.
Given the sheer number of cases, it seems plausible that the president and the government may have been forced to devote real resources to their defense.
But in fact the opposite may be true: The birthers' own copious legal bungling could wind up costing them more than Obama will have to spend defending himself.
The birthers have peppered dozens of state and federal courts around the country with legal challenges—against the president and other government officials and organizations who had some role in allowing Obama's name to be placed on the ballot, including the Federal Election Commission, various state election officials, and the US Supreme Court. Some of the suits, particularly those filed by the movement's leading lady, California lawyer/dentist Orly Taitz, have been headlined by members of the military claiming they've been wrongfully made to serve in foreign wars by an illegitimate commander in chief.
Most recently, birther attorneys have represented car dealers who charge that Obama is a phony president who lacked the authority to order a restructuring of Chrysler that they say cost them their businesses.
WorldNetDaily has noted that FEC filings show that Obama's presidential campaign has paid out more than $1.7 million since the election to the law firm of Perkins Coie. Until recently, that firm was home to Obama's campaign lawyer, and now White House counsel, Robert Bauer—the very same DC lawyer, says WND, who has defended Obama in many of the birther lawsuits.
Ergo, WND concluded, Obama must be devoting that entire $1.7 million to crushing birthers in court. This is a ridiculous claim: Even after an election is over a presidential campaign has plenty of need for lawyers as it winds down operations and meets campaign finance law requirements.
But WND's editors believe they have a smoking gun in a letter Bauer sent on April 3 to John David Hemenway, a DC lawyer representing retired Air Force Colonel Gregory Hollister in a suit against "Barry Soetoro…de facto President in posse." (Some birthers claim Obama is actually an Indonesian citizen who shares his last name with his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.)
The lawsuit claims that Hollister may be unable to perform his duty to uphold the Constitution if Obama called him out of retirement and ordered him to war, because Obama isn't a natural-born citizen.
A US District Court judge dismissed the "frivolous" case and reprimanded the 83-year-old lawyer for filing it. Nonetheless, Hemenway appealed, prompting Bauer to send him a letter warning that Obama would seek sanctions if he pursued the matter.
WND and many of its readers apparently believe this letter proves that Obama has teams of expensive lawyers working round the clock to stomp out the suits and intimidate the underdog plaintiffs and their attorneys.
The White House never responded to WND's questions about the legal fees, and Bauer didn't respond to Mother Jones. But the birthers' lawsuits don't exactly seem to be requiring Obama's lawyers—government or private—to burn the midnight oil.
Roger West, an assistant US attorney in the central district of California, represented the government in a lawsuit brought by Taitz on behalf of perennial presidential candidate Alan Keyes, asking the court to require that Obama prove he is a natural-born citizen.
The case has dragged on for more than a year, mostly because Taitz, a graduate of an online, unaccredited law school, failed to serve the defendants. Judge David O. Carter dismissed the suit in October for a host of reasons, but Taitz has appealed.
Yet West says that far from bleeding his office, Taitz and her co-counsel Gary Kreep have assembled such a weak case that he hasn't had to spend much time on it.
"I filed one motion that didn't take too long, we've had two hearings and that's it," he says. "It's not like we've devoted some sort of task force to this."
Army Major Rebecca Ausprung handled two of the birther cases against the Department of the Army that disputed Obama's authority as commander in chief to order soldiers to war. Ausprung says she spent a few hours drafting motions and doing research, and she did have to make three short trips to Georgia from Arlington, Virginia.
She prevailed in both cases. "The monetary cost to the government in defending these two cases was extremely minimal," she says.
Or consider a case filed by one of the most prolific birther litigants, Philip J. Berg, that went all the way up to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. In November the court dismissed the appeal and ordered Berg to pay the legal costs for the defendants, which included the Federal Election Commission.
Here was the government's big chance to recoup its millions. But when the FEC submitted its bill, the grand total came to $20.40. This doesn't include the cost of the time government lawyers spent writing briefs and appearing in court.
Yet it's clear that as much of a nuisance as these suits are for the government, that's all they are: a nuisance.
In fact, the plaintiffs may be spending far more time and money on these cases than Obama or the government is, in part because of their failure to abide by basic court procedures.
In one of the Georgia cases Ausprung handled, a federal judge sanctioned Taitz in October for $20,000 for, among other things, pursuing a case long after a judge had dismissed it and her own client had discharged her. Taitz has refused to pay the fine.
So far, judges have been remarkably tolerant of the birthers' shenanigans—despite being handed abundant opportunities to throw their petitions out of court. In one case, Taitz allegedly encouraged supporters to contact the judge by phone and mail to lobby for her cause—a glaring ethics violation that he chose to ignore.
Another of her cases only went forward because the federal judge basically begged the defendants to let Taitz serve them—the first step in any lawsuit, but one that Taitz had neglected to take for about seven months.
The judges' written opinions suggest that by giving the birthers' cases a full airing, they hope to put some of the most outrageous allegations to rest.
But not only have the birthers shown little gratitude to the judges who have indulged them, their court losses have also fueled the conspiracy theories that the judges had hoped to extinguish.
Taitz accused US District Judge Clay Land of having improperly discussed one of her cases with Attorney General Eric Holder, and submitted a sworn eyewitness account describing a clandestine meeting in a Columbus, Georgia, coffee shop between the judge and a man with a "trim upper lip mustache, not large of stature and general olive complexion"—whom the source naturally assumed to be the attorney general.
On the day in question, however, Holder was making a public appearance 2,000 miles away in Los Angeles. Expect the birthers' theories to become even more far-fetched as their legal endeavors continue to fail.
Not today, but up until the middle of last summer they could and some did.
Strangely enough, the Department of Hawaiian Home lands website had instructions in how to obtain the long form certificate, up until that time. They preferred it, and it saved the applicant time and hassle, since the short form does not contain sufficient information for their purposes.
But of course, you knew that.
BTW, I discovered that change *before* I read about on WND, or anywhere else.
I am convinced that justice will ultimately be served, to those who are supposed to eat it.
I of course meant "illegitimize".
Not so..
The U.S. State Department issues 1,500 grants a year.
http://fulbright.state.gov/
The U.S. Congress, through an annual appropriation to the Department of State, has provided the authority and resources that have allowed the Fulbright Program to flourish. In 2009, the Congressional appropriation was $234.9 million.
http://fulbright.state.gov/fulbright/become/programwork
new obot
Lack of subtlety in the nomenclature department.
No doubt.
And not even a good one.
Obama has lived for almost 50 years without leaving any footprints — none! There is no Obama documentation — no bona fides — no paper trail — nothing.
Original, vault copy birth certificate — Not released (lawyers’ fees = $2,000,000 ~ birth certificate = $15)
Certification of Live Birth — Released — Counterfeit
Obama/Dunham marriage license — Not released (if one exists)
Obama/Dunham divorce — Released (by independent investigators)
Kindergarten records — Records lost (this is a big one — read two frames)
Soetoro/Dunham marriage license — Not released
Soetoro adoption records — Not released
Fransiskus Assisi School School application — Released (by independent investigators)
Punahou School records — Not released
Soetoro/Dunham divorce — Released (by independent investigators)
Selective Service Registration — Released — Under suspicion
Social Security Number — Under suspicion
Occidental College records — Not released
Passport — Not released and records scrubbed clean by Obama’s terrorism and intelligence adviser
Columbia College records — Not released
Columbia thesis — “Soviet Nuclear Disarmament” — Not released
Harvard College records — Not released
Harvard Law Review articles — None
Illinois Bar Records — Not released
Baptism certificate — None
Medical records — Not released
Illinois State Senate records — None
Illinois State Senate schedule — Lost
Law practice client list — Not released
University of Chicago scholarly articles — None
The Illinois State Archives told Judicial Watch that they never received any request from Senator Obama to archive any records in his possession. In 2007, Obama told Tim Russert that his records were “not kept.”
And there’s less on the web every day. In time, the entire Obama body of knowledge will consist of 3 documents — “Dreams From My Father” — “The Audacity of Hope” — and the latest — “Change We Can Believe In” — all written by Barack Hussein Obama or his “ghost-writers.”
http://www.theobamafile.com/BarackObama.htm
Not today, but up until the middle of last summer they could and some did.
Strangely enough, the Department of Hawaiian Home lands website had instructions in how to obtain the long form certificate, up until that time. They preferred it, and it saved the applicant time and hassle, since the short form does not contain sufficient information for their purposes.
But of course, you knew that.
BTW, I discovered that change *before* I read about on WND, or anywhere else.
I still favor to to get any prosecuting attorney in the nation to subpoena his original birth documents, convene a grand jury investigation and have experts examine the documents under oath.
When one is sued, one must respond (defend himself) or risk a default judgment.
Where's there is smoke, there is fire...the mere fact that over 60 lawsuits have been filed, proves that. There exists "reasonable doubt" that has - for far - NOT been quelled by any of the obamaland attorneys and their "proof"...which is mostly lip service.
Obama's attorneys have not been asked to offer any proof because none of the suits brought so far meet the requirement of standing.
Then why doesn't the obamaTATOR produce some proof and stop this further burden on the courts?
Obama is not burdening the courts, birthers are. Sixty suits, all dismissed for the same reason, and birthers have yet to figure out they're barking up the wrong tree.
No court or judge has asked Obama for any "proof". To whom should Obama present his "proof"?
Unless, of course, there is no there there, and Obama has hidden nothing. Like it or not, that is a possibility that must be considered.
Perhaps in your desire to believe in obamessiah you can delude yourself with that, but the evidence is mounting well beyond reasonable coincidence that this affirmative action bastard’s records are being purposely withheld from the people of this nation. As one example, do a little search on his kindergarten record, which happens to be the only record missing from that years entry students. ... Loosen your sycophantic kneepads
How many unconditional loans do you think are made to businesses in trouble?
The scum like jamese 777, bubba-ho, etc. have no use for the truth, as evidenced by their kneepad apologetics for their affirmative action criminal-in-chief. These scum have been shown so many pieces of factual evidence yet they continue to spin the deceits concocted by the likes of Axelgreasy and company. But thanks for posting the info on the Fulbright program.
Now that's your cue to switch focus and tell us that the statements were not official utterances, in contradiction to your own assertions.
You kneepadders are becoming almost too obvious in your determination to cover for your beloved liar-in-chief. It does give others the opportunity to expose the talking points lies your masters feed you though, so keep up the useful sycophancy and adjust your kneepads again.
Hey, kneepader, when such officials make official statements, by their own laws they are bound to disclose the material they used to issue such an offocoal statement, but your examples refuse to release said data.
Now that’s your cue to switch focus and tell us that the statements were not official utterances, in contradiction to your own assertions.
You kneepadders are becoming almost too obvious in your determination to cover for your beloved liar-in-chief. It does give others the opportunity to expose the talking points lies your masters feed you though, so keep up the useful sycophancy and adjust your kneepads again.
Service Employees International Union (had to look up SEIU)? What's up with that?
Perhaps you would be so kind as to provide a source.
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