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Who’s the best of the birther attorneys?

By on June 1, 2012 in Gary Kreep, Leo Donofrio, Mario Apuzzo, Orly Taitz, Philip Berg, Polls

I ask this seriously. Attorneys who have argued for the birther cause obviously vary in ability, although they are all equal in results so far on this particular topic1. I’m interested in your opinion as to which of the attorneys has the best legal skills, writes the best briefs, frames their arguments most logically, understands the law and cites on-point authority most effectively. Candidates are listed alphabetically (since the poll was published, Mark Hatfield and Stephen Pidgeon have been added at the end). The poll closes at midnight on June 5, Eastern US time.

Who's the best of the birther attorneys?

  • Gary Kreep (33%, 24 Votes)
  • Orly Taitz (25%, 18 Votes)
  • Phil Berg (10%, 7 Votes)
  • Leo Donofrio (8%, 6 Votes)
  • Larry Klayman (8%, 6 Votes)
  • Mario Apuzzo (7%, 5 Votes)
  • Mark Hatfield (4%, 3 Votes)
  • Van Irion (3%, 2 Votes)
  • Stephen Pidgeon (2%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 72

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If you want to explain your vote, please leave a comment. I would just ask, since this is a serious poll, that commenters not be insulting to our contestants.

For reference, here are some sample briefs from each entry. The name hyperlinks on the left refer to stories on this web site.

1To my knowledge, Larry Klayman has yet to receive his first decision in a birther case.

Purpura v. Obama Appeal hearing video 5/31/12: Updated with results and new video!

By on May 31, 2012 in Ballot Challenges, Lawsuits, Mario Apuzzo, Videos

My notes follow the video below.

 

1. The judges seemed to notice that Apuzzo is trying to use a primary election statute to gain standing to challenge the general election.

2. Apuzzo clearly misstates the law of the United States regarding the citizenship of immigrant children prior to US v. Wong.

3. It was obvious that the judges were aware of the confusion resulting from 50 states making possibly conflicting decisions on a candidate. Apuzzo countered that it was simple and quick, one zip to the Supreme Court and everybody is satisfied, but having to admit that the present birther litigation is anything but simple and quick.

4. Apuzzo argues that “The Law of Nations” was adopted as the common law of the United States. Vattel codified a “universal principle of mankind”. He says that when the nation was founded “there was no other law,” a facially false statement which the judges couldn’t help but notice.

5. Apuzzo concedes that under English common law, parentage is not a requirement.

6. He concedes that the Electors and the Congress ultimately vet the candidates The judge notes that they already did this in the 2008 election. Apuzzo says that he doesn’t know what issues Congress looked at. The clause in the Constitution about presidential qualifications is like one sentence long. How could they have overlooked it?

7. The KGB?

8. Apuzzo admits that the Constitution makes provision for an unqualified president-elect, but then says that’s inconceivable. Well, whoever wrote that amendment conceived of it.

And here is the decision of the court, lower court decision affirmed. Apuzzo lost.

NJ – 2012-05-31 – PURPURA|MORAN – Appellate Decision (Affirmed)

Apuzzo deathwatch (progress notes added)

By on May 30, 2012 in Ballot Challenges, Mario Apuzzo

Purpura

Today we remember the Purpura v. Obama ballot objection, born April 5, 2012, in New Jersey and declared terminally ill by Administrative Law Judge Jeff Masin a mere 5 days later. The suit was ill-conceived and born with fatal defects that could not be corrected.

The Purpura lawsuit family representative Mario Apuzzo has sought a second opinion in the case and will be meeting with specialist doctors (juris) Fisher, Baxter and Carchman today. We anticipate bad news and are ready to offer our sympathies to the loved ones during this trying time. In this situation the grieving process may be stymied at the stage of denial and that always makes things more difficult.

Dropping out of allegorical mode, I note that while we haven’t seen the briefs filed by attorneys for Obama and the NJ Secretary of State, they were filed and Apuzzo has filed an answer yesterday, which appears following and from which we might infer some of what the opposition briefs addressed. Continue Reading →

New Jersey: Purpura appeal filed

By on May 23, 2012 in Ballot Challenges, Mario Apuzzo

imageMario Apuzzo (right) has uploaded a copy of the appeal that he filed on May 18 with the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division of the decision in Purpura v. Obama to Scribd.

You may recall that administrative law judge Jeff Masin determined that in New Jersey a presidential candidate doesn’t even have to consent for his name to be on the ballot, much less prove anything, and that as a matter of law there is no requirement that US Presidents have two US citizen parents.

Attorney Apuzzo, who is a strong advocate for the theory that Obama is not eligible because his father wasn’t a US citizen, disagrees and filed the appeal that’s featured below. The appeal includes a copy of the official court transcript in which it cannot be found that Obama’s attorney in any way admitted that the long form birth certificate (LFBC) released by the White House was a forgery and you’ll find the judge lamenting the fact that no one gave him an Obama birth certificate coffee mug (I’m being facetious).

Like Orly Taitz, Apuzzo has adopted the “kitchen sink” strategy of including all sorts of birther theories, adding the Breitbart News article about a pamphlet saying Obama was born in Kenya, and copying the Arpaio Cold Case Posse claims about Selective Service forgery. I have said from the beginning that Apuzzo is about publicity and not about winning. I think this latest filing bears that out. Still he cites six and a half pages of authorities.

Apuzzo misrepresents Judge Masin’s decision when he says:

…we can conclude that the ALJ found that Obama was born in Hawaii

Actually, the judge accepted a Hawaiian birth hypothetically to deal with the claim that Apuzzo made that even if Obama were born in Hawaii, he’s not a natural born citizen. If the Judge found Obama was born in Hawaii, then Apuzzo did too because he makes the same hypothetical starting point for argument.

Continue Reading →

Have the birthers figured out that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii?

By on May 5, 2012 in Birth Location, Birthers, Charles Kerchner, Mario Apuzzo, Orly Taitz, Philip Berg

When I started blogging about birthers, the birther story was that Barack Obama’s mother made a quick trip to Kenya, Obama was born there, she hastily returned to Hawaii and registered his birth.

This story circulated for quite some time before there was any reason to believe it  although eventually some reasons (albeit untrue ones) surfaced. The facts are:

  • Obama’s birth certificate says he was born in Honolulu
  • Hawaii didn’t register out-of-state births in 1961
  • Honolulu newspapers listed Obama’s birth in a section of the newspaper that carried information from the health department
  • Obama’s birth certificate shows he was born in a hospital and delivered by a doctor
  • The Hawaii Department of health has repeatedly affirmed that Obama was born in Hawaii and that his birth certificate is legitimate
  • Contemporary written accounts found in State Department files mention him being born in Hawaii
  • Obama’s African relatives say he was born in Hawaii and not in Kenya (Sayid Obama and Sarah Obama).
  • Contemporary statistical reports from the INS show that no American citizen flew from Kenya to the USA that entire year.

While we like to say that birthers are immune to evidence, there is so much evidence that it’s hard to ignore. Have things changed?

Look at birther lawsuits from 2008-9:

  • Berg v. Obama et al. – Attorney Berg alleges birth in Kenya, cites “grandmother tape.”
  • Kerchner v. Obama – Attorney Apuzzo alleges birth in Kenya, cites “grandmother tape.”
  • Keyes v. Obama – Attorney Taitz, alleges birth in Kenya, cites fake Kenyan birth certificate
  • Hollister v. Soetoro – Attorney Berg alleges birth in Kenya, cites “grandmother tape”
  • Rhodes v. MacDonald – Attorney Taitz alleges birth in Kenya

When birther lawsuits started, “born in Kenya” was a mainstay of many of the cases including those prosecuted by Taitz and Apuzzo. Today, while allegations of forged birth certificates abound, I am not seeing affirmative allegations that President Obama was actually born outside the country (Fair v. Obama is the only current case I know that maintains some argument that Obama was born in Kenya). Taitz in Farrar v. Obama in Georgia and Taitz v. Obama in Mississippi avoids mention of a foreign birth. Apuzzo in his recent case of Purpura v. Obama is quick to claim the birth certificate is a fake, but not to offer a claim that Obama is foreign born. New plaintiffs, like Jerry Collette also allege a forged birth certificate from President Obama but stop short of claiming he was born somewhere else and offer no evidence of a foreign birth.

There might be several explanations including that I haven’t read all the cases and what I report isn’t true. It could be that plaintiffs are trying to shift the burden of proof to the President to prove where he was born. Maybe they still believe Obama was born in Kenya, but that they don’t have any evidence of it. It could be that birthers think it’s easier for them to win on the two-parent theory than proving foreign birth.

But is  it possible that birthers have come around to the view that Obama is an American-born socialist, America-hating, fraud, cheat, liar and low-life rather than a foreign one?

Shocking video: Obama’s attorney doesn’t admit birth certificate is a forgery

By on April 24, 2012 in Ballot Challenges, Mario Apuzzo, Videos

Mario Apuzzo calls a witness in the New Jersey ballot challenge, Purpura v. Obama, to contest the authenticity of the White House long form birth certificate image. Administrative Law Judge Jeff S. Masin questions the relevance of authenticity testimony, given that Obama didn’t submit any birth certificate to the New Jersey Secretary or the Court. Apuzzo counters that Obama did submit the birth certificate – on a coffee mug.1 Judge Masin responded:

In this case, I don’t have a mug. There is no birth certificate that has been presented to me – good, bad, indifferent, real, forged, certified, anything. It’s not here. So a debate about what he put on the Internet, the birth certificate, whether that is a legitimate birth certificate is not relevant.

Obama attorney Alexandra Hill, in a stunning display of courtroom strategy, let the judge do most the talking.

Continue Reading →

Birther bites dust

By on April 11, 2012 in Ballot Challenges, Mario Apuzzo

The title is in the sense of “dog bites man,” a story that’s not “news” because it happens all the time.

In this instance Mario Apuzzo representing Nicholas E. Purpura in a lawsuit against Barack Obama, has seen an Initial Decision from Administrative Law Judge Jeff F. Masin that says he’s lost another case against Barack Obama.

Purpura v. Obama is a challenge to the validity of Barack Obama’s nominating petition in New Jersey. The judge ruled that there is no obligation that Barack Obama prove his birth place, and assuming that the President was born in the USA, that he’s eligible to be President, rejecting Apuzzo’s crank two-citizen-parent rule.

Apuzzo has filed a 32-page exception to Judge Masin’s 9–page ruling. I do not know whether Apuzzo misunderstood the judge’s decision or if he is intentionally misrepresenting it. The judge didn’t rule (contrary to Apuzzo’s representation) that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. The judge said that Obama didn’t have to prove he was born in Hawaii under New Jersey law, and that the publicly known facts of Obama’s parentage are no barrier to his being elected President (again).

Apuzzo spins around and shouts “Vattel” 11 times, but I don’t think that is the right name of the strange little creature that Apuzzo wishes would appear to spin his  Exception into gold. It is straw and will remain so.

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