Judge threatens eligibility lawyer with $10,000 fine

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BORN IN THE USA?

Judge threatens eligibility lawyer with $10,000 fine

Says case, appeal of dismissal, frivolous

Posted: September 19, 2009
12:40 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

A judge who dismissed a lawsuit over President Barack Obama's eligibility and was accused by the attorney of exhibiting "subservience" to that "same illegitimate chain of command" now is threatening the lawyer with a $10,000 fine.

U.S. District Judge Clay Land of the Middle District of Georgia had dismissed a complaint challenging Obama's eligibility to be commander-in-chief by Capt. Connie Rhodes, the medical doctor and Army officer who wanted a restraining order to prevent her overseas deployment on the basis Obama has not demonstrated himself to be a natural-born citizen under the U.S. Constitution.

Orly Taitz, the California attorney handling many of the lawsuits challenging Obama's eligibility, immediately filed a request for reconsideration of the dismissal, even though she was threatened by the judge with sanctions.

"Plaintiff avers that there is increasing evidence that the United States District Courts in the 11th Circuit are subject to political pressure, external control, and, mostly likely, subservience to the same illegitimate chain of command which plaintiff has previously protested in this case, except that the de facto president is not even nominally the commander-in-chief of the Article III Judiciary," the request said.

It was less than a day later when the irate judge responded.

"In her most recent tirade, plaintiff's counsel seeks reconsideration of the court's order dismissing this action. 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 … 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…," the judge wrote.

"This filing contemptuously ignores the court's previous admonition that plaintiff's counsel discontinue her illegitimate use of the federal judiciary to further her political agenda," Land wrote.

"Counsel for plaintiff is ordered to show cause why the court should not impose a monetary penalty of $10,000.00 upon plaintiff's counsel for her misconduct. Counsel shall file her response to this show cause order within 14 days…," Land wrote.

Land is the same judge who earlier dismissed a similar case filed by Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, a decision that now is on appeal.

As WND reported, Rhodes filed suit in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ga., earlier this month, requesting a restraining order preventing her deployment overseas on the basis that the top of the chain of command, President Barack Obama, has not demonstrated himself to be a natural-born citizen under the U.S. Constitution.

Join the petition campaign to demand President Obama resolve the questions over his birthplace by revealing his long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate!

"After conducting a hearing on plaintiff's motion, the court finds that plaintiff's claims are frivolous," Land's ruling on the initial case stated. "Accordingly, her application for a temporary restraining order is denied, and her complaint is dismissed in its entirety. Furthermore, plaintiff's counsel is hereby notified that the filing of any future actions in this court, which are similarly frivolous, shall subject counsel to sanctions."

Taitz, however, followed immediately with an emergency request for stay of deployment pending motions for rehearing.

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James Robertson

WND reported earlier in another eligibility case when a federal judge threw out a lawsuit by a retired military officer because the subject had been "blogged, texted, twittered and otherwise massaged."

The judge, James Robertson, threatened the attorney, John D. Hemenway, 82, with sanctions. Hemenway responded by ripping the judge for using blog hearsay in his decision.

In his statement, Robertson ridiculed the complaint, which never had a court hearing, finding that the eligibility issue had been "blogged, texted, twittered and otherwise massaged."

His dismissal ordered the attorney to respond immediately and explain why there should not be financial sanctions. Hemenway complied, pointing out that the assumption of Obama's eligibility "assumes facts not in evidence."

Hemenway also suggested that if there were to be sanctions, court rules would allow him to require the release of Obama's birth information.

"If the court persists in pressing Rule 11 procedures against Hemenway, then Hemenway should be allowed all of the discovery pertinent to the procedures as court precedents have permitted in the past," he wrote to the judge.

"The court has referred to a number of facts outside of the record of this particular case and, therefore, the undersigned is particularly entitled to a hearing to get the truth of those matters into the record. This may require the court to authorize some discovery," Hemenway said.

Robertson immediately backed off, issuing only a reprimand to Hemenway, a reprimand which now is on appeal.

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 over the dispute 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 estimated at more than $1 million to avoid releasing a state birth certificate that would put to rest the questions.

WND 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 adoption records.

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