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Federal Judge Sanctions 'Birther' Lawyer for 'Frivolous' Suit
Ga. judge issues $20,000 penalty to lawyer who filed suit on behalf of Army captain trying to avoid deployment
Fulton County Daily Report
October 14, 2009
U.S. District Judge Clay D. Land has issued a $20,000 sanction for misconduct in a Columbus, Ga., case involving California lawyer and dentist Orly Taitz, a leader of the "birther" movement whose members have challenged President Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship.
Land issued the 43-page order (pdf) on Tuesday, the third order in which he has taken Taitz to task for filing frivolous litigation and attempting to misuse the federal courts to promote a political agenda that seeks to illegitimize Obama's presidency.
Land, appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia in 2001 by President George W. Bush, issued the $20,000 penalty "as punishment for [Taitz's] misconduct, as a deterrent to prevent future misconduct, and to protect the integrity of the Court," noting in his order that he could not recall ever having previously imposed monetary sanctions on an attorney of his own accord without a motion from a party in the litigation.
"The absolute absence of any legitimate legal argument, combined with the political diatribe in her motions, demonstrates that Ms. Taitz's purpose is to advance a political agenda and not to pursue a legitimate legal cause of action," Land found. "[C]ounsel's wild accusations may be protected by the First Amendment when she makes them on her blog or in her press conferences, but the federal courts are reserved for hearing genuine legal disputes, not as a platform for political rhetoric and insults."
Reached at her law office in California, Taitz said she was in the middle of reading Land's order. "All I can say is that this order is issued with a goal to intimidate me, harass me and retaliate against me for bringing a legitimate action on behalf of my client," she said.
"It's an absolute outrage," she continued. "That is an order that was written by a judge who completely misrepresented the facts of the case, who completely distorted the case."
The sanction stems from a case in Columbus that Taitz filed on behalf of Army Capt. Connie Rhodes, a soldier and medical doctor who had been ordered to deploy to Iraq. Although Rhodes later deployed to Iraq, she had sought to avoid deployment, claiming that Obama was not born in the United States and was "an illegal usurper, unlawful pretender and unqualified imposter."
Taitz had earlier filed an identical suit on Rhodes' behalf in federal court in Texas. A judge there denied Taitz's motion for a temporary restraining order, saying Rhodes' complaint "presents nothing but conjecture and subjective belief to substantiate the basis for her claims."
Rhodes' suit was the second case challenging Obama's presidency that Taitz has filed in Columbus on behalf of a soldier seeking to avoid deployment either to Iraq or Afghanistan. In July, Taitz filed suit on behalf of another soldier, Army reservist Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, who had sought to avoid deployment to Afghanistan on grounds identical to those raised by Rhodes.
Land dismissed Cook's suit for lack of standing to pursue a claim when the Army rescinded Cook's orders. Cook's future commander in Afghanistan said he did not want Cook deployed because "he had a military mission to conduct in Afghanistan and did not need any distractions associated with a reservist who did not wish to serve," according to Tuesday's order.
Taitz confirmed she is pursuing that claim on appeal, which Land noted in his order "confirmed that counsel's focus was not to obtain legal relief on behalf of Major Cook; rather, the objective was to maintain a legal action in federal court in hopes of having a federal judge permit discovery that would require the President of the United States to produce a 'birth certificate' that was satisfactory to counsel and her followers."
Land had warned Taitz in an order he issued in September -- after he had dismissed Rhodes' case and Rhodes had, in turn, dismissed Taitz as her attorney -- that Taitz's subsequent pleadings were frivolous and sanctionable because they "contemptuously" ignored the judge's admonition to "discontinue her illegitimate use of the federal judiciary to further her political agenda."
Land noted in Tuesday's order that Taitz had "failed to allege and explain how such factual allegations resulted in a denial of [Rhodes'] individual constitutional rights such that [Rhodes] would be authorized to ignore a valid deployment order from her chain of command. ... [Rhodes'] sensitivity to the President's eligibility only existed when she faced deployment to Iraq ... ."
In Tuesday's order, Land noted that Taitz ignored his warning. Without her client's knowledge or approval, according to court records, Taitz filed a motion for reconsideration, which Land said she used as a "platform to repeat her political diatribe against the President, to accuse the undersigned [Land] of treason, and to maintain that 'the United States District Courts in the 11th Circuit are subject to political pressure, external control, and ... subservience to the same illegitimate chain of command which [Rhodes] has previously protested."
Taitz subsequently filed a pleading in which she sought to recuse Land, claiming he had been seen having an ex parte conversation with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at a cafe across from the federal courthouse in Columbus in July. Taitz also accused the judge of having a financial interest in the litigation because stock he owned might be adversely affected if Obama's presidency was found to be illegitimate.
An affidavit Taitz submitted on the Holder sighting by a man who claimed to have recognized him at the Columbus coffee shop stated the alleged ex parte communication took place on a date when, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release that Land cited in his order, Holder was in Los Angeles.
Dubbing Taitz's allegation "a phantom visit with the attorney general," Land wrote, "To use this 'evidence' in support of a false and misleading accusation that a judge had an ex parte conversation with someone whom the judge has never spoken to or even met is additional proof of a pattern of frivolous and outrageous conduct on the part of Ms. Taitz."
Taitz explained in an interview with the Daily Report that, "I have no ability to verify an affidavit."
Land also derided as "fantasy" Taitz's claim that two companies in which she said Land held stock, Microsoft and Comcast, would be influenced in any way by the Rhodes litigation, calling the argument "so speculative and ridiculous that it is not worthy of additional comment."
Land wrote that he levied the heavy sanctions penalty because Taitz's cause "is beyond the reach of the federal judiciary" and her attempts to enlist the courts by challenging soldiers' military deployment "ignored the well-established precedent that disfavors judicial interference in the internal affairs of the armed forces."
"Adoption of counsel's legal theory," Land continued, "would make the judiciary the arbiter of any dispute regarding the President's constitutional qualifications. Our founders provided opportunities for President's qualifications to be tested, but they do not include direct involvement by the judiciary. The federal courts were not established to resolve such purely political disputes or to assist in the pursuit of a political fishing expedition, particularly when that intrusion would interfere with the ability of the U.S. Army to do its job."
