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BORN IN THE USA?
Attorney facing penalties wants birth docs for defense
'Hardship on plaintiff greatly outweighs hardship on defendant'
Posted: February 13, 2010
12:10 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
A California lawyer who has shepherded several of the high-profile legal challenges to Barack Obama's eligibility to be president has filed a pleading in federal court in Washington, saying she faces a $20,000 penalty and a threat to her law license and needs the president's birth documents to defend herself.
Attorney Orly Taitz told WND she submitted the pleading today to Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Taitz said she applied for a preliminary injunction, because her understanding of the rules of procedure for the district court shows a hearing or decision must be returned within 20 days.
Among the cases she has handled have been one in California on behalf of presidential candidate Alan Keyes which now is on appeal, another in Georgia on behalf of Maj. Stefan Cook and yet another in Georgia on behalf of Capt. Connie Rhodes.
WND has reported efforts to raise the question of Obama's eligibility at the state and national levels since before the 2008 election.
Numerous lawsuits have been filed alleging Obama did not meet the U.S. Constitution's requirement that a president be a "natural born citizen." The lawsuits have asserted he either was not born in Hawaii as he claims or was a dual citizen because of his father's British citizenship at the time of his birth.
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."
Demand the truth by joining the petition campaign to make President Obama reveal his long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate!
However, none of the cases filed to date has been successful in reaching the plateau of legal discovery so that information about Obama's birth could be obtained. Most have been dismissed at the lower court level based on judges' decisions that the plaintiffs did not have "standing" – or the prospect of a personal injury in the cases.
Taitz' filing in Washington argues she's facing a $20,000 penalty imposed by Judge Clay D. Land in the Rhodes case and possible action by the California Bar Association, to which Land forwarded his highly critical order.
"Plaintiff is seeking a preliminary injunction … to obtain the vital records of the defendant prior to the February 26 deadline for document and response submission of the response by the plaintiff to the [California] bar," she wrote. "Plaintiff is seeking a preliminary injunction within 20 days, as prescribed by LCvR 65.1 (d) to be scheduled by the court prior to March 1."
She said the U.S. Supreme Court has concluded, in a previous case, a sitting president "has no immunity from civil law litigation against him from acts done before office and not related to the office."
Taitz stated she has "a unique standing to bring this case as she suffered unique damages and she was … harmed by the actions of the defendant."
Her "Defend Our Freedoms Foundation" has been under repeated hacker attacks. She operates through a mailing address of 29839 Santa Margarita Parkway, Suite 100, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., 92688.
"Obama has refused to unseal any of his original vital records," she said. "No one was allowed to see his original birth certificate, college application records, financial aid forms or his medical records," she argues. "The only record Obama presented was a short version Certification of Live Birth issued in 2007 which didn't provide the name of the hospital, name of the doctor in attendance or signatures of any witnesses.
"In light of the fact that the state of HI statute 338-17 allowed foreign born children of Hawaiian residents to get Hawaiian birth certificates and statute 338-5 allowed birth certificates to be obtained without any corroborating documents from any hospitals, there is no verifiable prima facia evidence of Obama's birth in Hawaii," she argues.
"Plaintiff is seeking an order by this honorable court directing the defendant to release by February 26, 2010, his original birth certificate, which was allegedly obtained based on the defendant's birth in Kapi'olani hospital in Hawaii [in 1961]," she seeks.
She's also asking for school and university records as well as passport records.
"When one compares the weight of hardships on both parties, the hardship on the plaintiff greatly outweighs the hardship on the defendant," she said.
She argued that the U.S. attorney's office should not handle Obama's defense.
"In case the U.S. attorney's office is not recused and it is found that the defendant has committed federal criminal offenses, the same U.S. attorney's office will be prosecuting him, which will deny him fair trail."
WND has reported lawmakers in a number of states have responded to the Obama controversy by proposing eligibility requirements, including Oklahoma, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Virginia and New York.
The proposals essentially are moving the same direction as a federal measure proposed by Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla.
Posey's H.R. 1503 states:
"To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of President to include with the committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate, together with such other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution."
The bill also provides:
"Congress finds that under … the Constitution of the United States, in order to be eligible to serve as President, an individual must be a natural born citizen of the United States who has attained the age of 35 years and has been a resident within the United States for at least 14 years."
The sponsors' goal is for the bill to become effective for the 2012 presidential election. The legislation now is pending in a House committee and has more than a dozen co-sponsors.
Key to the arguments over Obama's eligibility is the fact that his original long-form birth certificate never has been released. A second significant factor is the multitude of documents that Obama has kept from the public.
Besides his actual birth documentation, the still-concealed documentation includes 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, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, and his adoption records.
Thirdly, another significant factor is the estimated $1.7 million Obama has spent on court cases to prevent any of the documentation of his life to be revealed to the public.
"Where's The Birth Certificate?" billboard helps light up the night at the Mandalay Bay resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
Because of the dearth of information about Obama's eligibility, WND founder Joseph Farah has launched a campaign to raise contributions to post billboards asking a simple question: "Where's the birth certificate?"
The campaign followed a petition that has collected more than 490,000 signatures demanding proof of his eligibility, the availability of yard signs raising the question and the production of permanent, detachable magnetic bumper stickers asking the question.
The "certification of live birth" posted online and widely touted as "Obama's birth certificate" does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same "short-form" document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true "long-form" birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.
Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a "natural born citizen," no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama's claim to a Hawaiian birth.
Your donation – from as little as $5 to as much as $1,000 – can be made online at the WND SuperStore. (Donations are not tax-deductible. Donations of amounts greater than $1,000 can be arranged by calling either 541-474-1776 or 1-800-4WND.COM. If you would prefer to mail in your contributions, they should be directed to WND, P.O. Box 1627, Medford, Oregon, 97501. Be sure to specify the purpose of the donation by writing "billboard" on the check. In addition, donations of billboard space will be accepted, as will significant contributions specifically targeted for geographic locations.)
If you are a member of the media and would like to interview Joseph Farah about this campaign, e-mail WND.