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Moore brief in McInnish case

By on June 5, 2013 in Lawsuits

I must say that the McInnish v. Chapman lawsuit is a magnet for nutty birther theories. We had the Larry Klayman complaint, followed with the amicus brief from Lucas Daniel Smith (who brought the subject of this article to my attention – and no, I have never tried to access your computer), then the USJF brief, and now someone named Albert W. L. Moore, Jr. has submitted his own amicus brief.

If one sang the Sesame Street song: “one of these briefs is not like the other,”  this one might be the odd one (but then again maybe they all are). It is like the others in that it seems to ignore what the question before the Alabama Supreme Court is. They’re not deciding whether Obama is eligible to be President or not; they’re deciding whether the lower court correctly dismissed the case, a dismissal not based on Obama’s eligibility. Still the Moore brief is a bit out there, even by birther standards.

It has the usual old birther stuff: Fukino said “records” instead of “record,” Indonesian adoption and Barack Obama Sr. is not really the President’s father. But it also has a narrative structure that I have come to associate with a former commenter here, Sven Magnussen (and his host of sock puppets). Here’s a bit:

Obama was a naturalized citizen of Indonesia around 1968, when American Secretary of State Dean Rusk issued a certificate of loss of nationality to facilitate the Indonesian naturalization. In 1971, Obama was returned to the United States unaccompanied on his Indonesian passport. The Department of State referred him to Catholic Charities of Connecticut, under a contractual arrangement. Catholic Charities had Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham appointed guardian. In 1977 Obama started using the Social Security number of a deceased American citizen to avoid applying for one on the basis of his American citizenship….

Then it lapses into the April Fool story of Obama attending Columbia University under the name of Barry Soetoro with a foreign student scholarship. Oh, and he wants a DNA sample.

Of course this is pure fantasy. Its logic (if you can call it that) says that Obama had to use someone else’s social-security number because he wasn’t a citizen—only you don’t have to be a citizen to get a social-security number, only a legal resident. And of course Columbia University lists Barack Obama, not Barry Soetoro as a graduate.

I don’t know. Maybe this brief was submitted to make the birthers look crazy. Either way, the McInnish appeal is pretty much a publicity stunt all around.

Read more:

8

207 – 0

By on May 25, 2013 in Lawsuits

That’s the score (birther court losses against wins) on the Birther Scorecard as of today. That number does not include most of the 50 lawsuits filed by Keith Judd that typically don’t amount to much, being summarily dismissed. He has been found to be a vexatious litigant and prohibited from filing in Louisiana, Mississippi , Tennessee and Texas (where Judd is presently incarcerated). We noted Judd primarily for his representation by Orly Taitz in some California eligibility cases.

Judd filed three lawsuits before in Iowa federal courts, all dismissed. In what may be a first for Judd (at least so far as I can tell), he filed a May 9, 2013, suit, in Polk County, Iowa, state court according to an article in the Des Moines Register. It says something about Obama being born in Kenya. The suit also claims that Judd has similar cases pending in all 50 states.

Who knew?

I checked his Vermont case and it had nothing to do with Obama’s eligibility. This case wasn’t counted in the 50.

14

McInnish v. Chapman in brief

By on May 25, 2013 in Lawsuits

The lawsuit of McInnish v. Chapman is the birther’s best hope these days.

Sometimes it can take a while to locate exactly what you want. Here are the briefs before the Alabama Supreme Court in McInnish v. Chapman. The issue is whether Alabama Secretary of State Chapman has a duty to verify the eligibility of candidates for President of the United States.

There is a long string of cases, going back to Donofrio v. Wells in 2008 where state courts have ruled that their secretaries of state do not have such a duty. Are the laws in Alabama different? Is the presence of birther sympathizers on the Alabama Supreme Court significant? We shall see.

1Spencer Connerat brought eligibility suits against Barack Obama in Florida.

2Jim Zeigler, songwriter and Mobile attorney, is a graduate of the Jones School of Law. The Alabama Republican Assembly is a chapter of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, who style themselves as the “Republican wing of the Republican Party.”

24

Ramblin’ screed

By on May 21, 2013 in Lawsuits, Mike Zullo

Ramblin’ screed, ramblin’ screed
Why you ramble, without need
Wild and windblown, that’s how you’ve grown
Who can stomach a ramblin’ screed?

While I like to think myself above the baser pleasures of life, I must admit a sense of satisfaction reading the Alabama Democratic Party’s amicus response in the case of McInnish v. Chapman and the phrase therein that is this article’s title. Referring to Mike Zullo’s latest affidavit, insinuated into the case by Appellants, they said:

…the ADP assumes that it is unnecessary to further address whether this Court should consider the rambling screed that passes for an “affidavit” attached to the Appellants’ Motion to Strike. Virtually none of the information contained in the affidavit is admissible or credible…. The “affidavit” is inadmissible on its face and is composed of hearsay, speculation, and unsupported conclusions.

You can read the rest of that scintillating document here. There’s just so much more gravitas and validity when the Alabama Democratic Party says something, than when I say it.

While most of the non-technical concepts in the ADP response might have been found in comments here, they make one observation that I didn’t:

The ADP notes that the affiant signed the “affidavit” solely in his personal capacity and without any title, even an imaginary one.

That seems significant to me because it undermines the Appellant’s argument that Zullo’s investigation is somehow “official.”

Whack-a-doodle-doo

By on May 14, 2013 in Lawsuits

I’ve designated few if any electrons to the Guthrie v. United States lawsuit. If you’ve seen one birther lawsuit, you’ve seen them all, and you know what’s going to happen to them.

Judge Barker has ordered the case dismissed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. This was a re-filing of a previously dismissed suit. The Jedi Pauly website discusses the case, but not the most recent dismissal.

Read the dismissal:

Continue Reading →

U. R. Stuck

By on May 5, 2013 in Lawsuits

Sometimes the wheels of justice grind slowly.

I am reminded of a little quip in Reader’s Digest from my childhood. They gave some humorous examples of bad checks that had been written. One was written on the “East Bank of Mississippi” and was signed: “U. R. Stuck.” I was in Mississippi earlier this year, saw the river and trod on some of that famous impeding “Mississippi mud.”

image

It seems to this commentator that some of that mud has gotten into the federal court system in Mississippi, noting that it was a year and a day ago that the Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings was filed by the Defendants in the case of Taitz v Democrat Party of Mississippi. We’re still waiting for the inevitable birther loss in that case.

I suppose one difference in this case is that the Defendants are not only trying to win the case, but to deter plaintiff Taitz from filing more frivolous lawsuits.

Suspicious lunch box at MSCO construction site; $1 million settlement over trumped-up charge lawsuit

By on May 1, 2013 in Joe Arpaio, Lawsuits

Work was shut down today at the construction site of a new headquarters for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. ABC 15 News reports that the messages “BOMB INSIDE” and “NO WORK TODAY” were painted on the wall of the partially constructed building [photo and story]. Bomb-sniffing dogs alerted on a lunch box found on the second floor. 100-150 workers were evacuated.

I used to work in a building that housed 3 radio stations, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Secret Service and a bank. There were so many bomb threats, that we finally stopped evacuating the building. Those were more peaceful times (not). Bomb threats, even spurious ones, are not funny, as will be found out if the perpetrator is caught.

Sheriff Arpaio and the MSCO. of course, have made lots of enemies and some of them have good cause to bear him ill. See my article, for example, “Arpaio attacks enemies with questionable evidence.” That article references a  lawsuit against the MSCO by a number of individuals, including a former judge, against whom it is alleged that Arpaio brought politically-motivated, trumped up charges. Last June, the Court ordered final entry of a settlement agreement in which the MSCO agreed to pay one of those plaintiffs, Wilcox, $975,000.00 in principal damages and $27,222.00 in attorney fees and $1,089.56 expenses. On April 26, 2013, MSCO attorneys notified the court that a settlement agreement had been reached with Plaintiff Donahoe, but does not state the terms reached.

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