You are a total waste of my time, but for the sake of any lurkers: Before making any ruling she said that she would not accept any argument on the basis of Obama’s ineligibility, because the eligibility of the President is “irrelevant” to the lawfulness of Lakin’s orders.
That means it could have been Joseph Stalin who ordered the Afghanistan surge, and the orders to Lakin would still be “lawful”.
The very quotes that BigGuy22 (who has never posted on anything on FR except opposing the “birthers”) gives from Lind show the reasons she gave for saying that the eligibility of the President is “irrelevant”. What he’s quoting makes my point. BigGuy just doesn’t want to admit that this is what she actually ruled. She effectively ruled that Joseph Stalin, if sworn in as POTUS, could LAWFULLY order combat operations anywhere in the world, and there’s not a dang thing anybody in the military could do about it. Even if Stalin came right out and said to the world that he is Joseph Stalin and he will bring America to her knees and make Russia lord of all. It is “irrelevant” because the Constitution, War Powers Act, Authorization to Use Force, and the protocols and rules of the military allow foreign enemy combatants to give lawful orders to the chain of command, as long as they first take an oath of office.
“That means it could have been Joseph Stalin who ordered the Afghanistan surge, and the orders to Lakin would still be “lawful”.”
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For the record, I agree with you. Even under the absurd hypothetical that Joseph Stalin had been elected President and had ordered the surge, Col. Roberts’s order to Lakin to report to his office would have been a lawful order, as the order itself did not depend on Obama’s authority but rather on Roberts’s own authority to issue orders. Had Lakin refused to show up, as he did, he would have been guilty of refusing to obey a lawful order and would have been imprisoned and dismissed from the service, as he was, and as he deserved to be.
Do you think that Col. Roberts lacked the authority to summon Lakin to his office? If so, I’d love to hear your legal explanation for why you think that’s the case.
Remember, however, the Chief Judge of the 1st Judicial Circuit explained very clearly, with reference to case law and to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, why you are wrong about this. If your only response is to conjure up absurd bogey-man hypotheticals and you can cite no laws or cases to support your position, I doubt that anyone is going to be swayed by emotional rants.