One could get dizzy from all the spin put on Judge Carter’s remarks in court yesterday and the subsequent orders in Barnett v Obama. I’m going to take the position that all federal judges basically follow the law, but they may vary in style. I thought Judge’s Carter’s style might be better understood by contrasting it with another Federal judge, presented with a similar case.
The case is Hollister v. Soetoro, the court District of Columbia District Court and the Judge, James Robertson. Hollister was Phil Berg’s case, the “interpleader” case in which he tried to force the court to decide who was really president, Obama or Biden, using a trick from contract law. Berg’s 1st Amended Complaint was filed February 11, 2009 and the same day Judge Robertson issued an order “that defendants need not respond to the amended complaint and that plaintiff’s response to the motion to dismiss is due 2/13/09″. A few motions went back and forth, but the result is that on March 5, less than one month after the amended complaint was filed, the judge dismissed the case.
Judge Robinson declared that the “interpleader” case was “frivolous”. He said:
This case, if it were allowed to proceed, would deserve mention in one of the books that seek to prove that the law is foolish or that America has too many lawyers with not enough to do. Even in its relatively short life the case has excited the blogosphere and the conspiracy theorists. The right thing to do is to bring it to an early end. [Emphasis added.]
Judge Robinson, it seems, is unwilling to waste the court’s time on frivolous lawsuits.
In contrast, Judge David O. Carter seems a more patient sort. He is giving Orly Taitz explanations as to what she does wrong, and even tried to assist her in accomplishing service. He is going through all the forms including scheduling a trial date, even though there may be no trial. Whatever his personal view of the merits of the lawsuit, he is acting in a very measured and objective fashion. On the one hand he promises not to summarily dismiss the case on a technicality (giving glee to the Orly tribe) but on the other hand suggesting that there will be no discovery until the motion to dismiss is dealt with, and leaving a none-too-subtle hint to the US Attorneys that a motion to stay discovery might be in order. [I think part of the confusion here is on the definition of technicality. I suppose failure to meet a deadline for service is technical for one side, and not having standing is considered technical by the other.]
Carter’s even-handed language may lead those of us itching for resolution (either trial or dismissal) to read too much into his statements. In the end, I am confident that he will follow the law, and Orly, if she pays attention, might get a bit of a legal education in the process.
Dr. Conspiracy challenged by MommaE
by Dr. Conspiracy on 06. May, 2009 in Dr. C. Comments, Who's Who
I went over to BlogRadio.com to see the Chalice show; Phil Berg, Lisa Liberi and MommaE were on talking about their lawsuit against Orly. I joined the chat room. I said something against the nObama grain and you’d have thought that I was Frankenstein’s monster and they were the villagers. BAN THE OBOT!
It was an incredible experience to be beset by so many people, throwing out so much fake information, and claiming they had proved me wrong with little more than “you’re an Obot”. They were sure my web site was full of false statements without so much as every being here! I kept asking over and over, “why do you think that” (Obama was adopted by Soetoro, Indonesia was a police state so Obama had to be adopted, only Indonesian citizens could attend school, etc.) None of them had a clue for a source on what they so fervently believed–except MommaE.
She joined the chat room for a minute after the live broadcast was over. She had a source. She said Obama admitted to being adopted by Lolo Soetoro on page 26 of his book, Dreams from My Father. So I looked it up; I have a copy of the book here. Nothing about adoption, and I said so. Oh, she said, it was in the FIRST edition of the book, which “is impossibly expensive to get”.
Well, I will say that page 26 in my copy is just a couple of pages before Chapter 2 starts, the chapter on Indonesia. Not knowing what to look for, I’m not going to try to find what I didn’t see the first time I read it. My guess is that Obama calls Soetoro his “stepfather” at some point, which, of course, doesn’t imply adoption.