Ledger -Inquirer incomplete report on Rhodes hearing. I will provide a full report later.
Posted on | September 15, 2009 | 8 Comments
Tuesday, Sep. 15, 2009
Judge will rule on ‘birther’ lawsuit by Wednesday
In return for Army paying for medical school, Rhodes committed to two years active duty
tool name
During a hearing in U.S. District Court Monday, an attorney for an Army officer fighting deployment to Iraq questioned Barack Obama’s legal right to serve as president, asserting he was born in Kenya, not Hawaii.
Judge Clay Land, inquisitive throughout the 90-minute hearing, said he will issue a decision by noon Wednesday on Capt. Connie Rhodes’ request for a temporary restraining order to block her deployment.
Rhodes was represented by Orly Taitz, a California lawyer and a national figure in the “birther” movement that claims Obama was not born in the United States and does not meet the qualifications to be president.
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Maj. Rebecca Ausprung, with the Department of the Army, Litigation Division in Washington, told Land this case was about Rhodes, not Obama.
“There was a lack of any reference to Capt. Rhodes,” Ausprung said after Taitz spent about 30 minutes addressing the court. “This case is about Capt. Rhodes and her deployment.”
But Taitz kept going back to Obama’s birth certificate. Twice she called Obama a “usurper.”
Land repeatedly pointed out it was a courtroom where the rule of law was all that mattered.
“Whenever I give you a minute, you go off on these talking points,” Land said.
“We have not seen Mr. Obama’s birth certificate,” Taitz responded.
“This is not a forum to lay ground work for a press conference,” Land said. “This is a court of law.”
In her final argument, Taitz asked Land why she had to prove a “Kenyan birth certificate” she submitted as evidence was authentic, yet her opponents didn’t have to prove Obama had an authentic United States birth certificate.
“Who has the burden of establishing that the president of the United States is not eligible to serve in his office?” Land asked Taitz.
The judge then pointed out that burden fell on Rhodes because she sought the restraining order to stop her deployment.
Rhodes received her officer’s commission in March 2005, according to Monday’s testimony.
It took two years for her to complete medical school at the University of Illinois. She went on active duty June 18, 2007, while doing her internships and residency at Army hospitals.
In return for the Army paying for her third and fourth years of medical school, Rhodes committed to serve two years’ active duty. That commitment started in July 2008.
She has previously served at Fort Gordon near Augusta, Fort Rucker in south Alabama and Fort Riley in Kansas.
She is currently at Fort Benning, awaiting deployment in the next week. She arrived here over the weekend.
Land asked the Army’s attorneys to make sure he was notified if her deployment came before his ruling.
Under questioning from Land, Rhodes said she had not declined any other orders since Obama became president.
“If Sen. McCain would have won, would you be objecting to deployment to Iraq?” the judge asked.
Rhodes said no.
Land then asked the question another way: If President George W. Bush still was the commander in chief, would she be fighting the deployment?
“No, sir,” Rhodes answered.
At one point in testimony, Rhodes expressed concerns she would not be covered by the rules of the Geneva Convention if she were captured.
“If you don’t have such protections, you can be beheaded,” Tatiz said at one point during her questioning of Rhodes.
That prompted Land to later say, “The possibility of being beheaded exists whether Obama, Bush, Reagan or George Washington was president. The question is not, is it a dangerous place? It is how does it relate to her claim that denies her constitutional rights under the current commander in chief.”
Rhodes, who was not in uniform but was accompanied by a military escort from Fort Benning, declined to answer questions after the hearing.
Rhodes’ complaint is similar to the July 8 suit filed by Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, who sought conscientious objector status and a temporary injunction. Taitz represents both.
Land tossed out Cook’s case in July.
The judge said the judicial branch shouldn’t inject itself into “political disputes” and shouldn’t get involved in hypothetical debates that haven’t yet become actual legal disputes.
Comments
8 Responses to “Ledger -Inquirer incomplete report on Rhodes hearing. I will provide a full report later.”
September 15th, 2009 @ 3:21 pm
Judge Land seems deplorably lacking in judgment. He wrongly dismissed the Cook case as a political rather than a legal matter, and now he puts the whole burden of proving Obama’s identity on Captain Rhodes. Jeez.
Seems like there is more than ample evidence to justify the judge stepping up and issuing whatever discovery powers are needed to get verification of Obama birth documents from both Kenya and Hawaii. But I guess that is too easy, straightforward and fair for this judge to consider doing.
September 15th, 2009 @ 4:47 pm
I realize that I’m not a lawyer, and have very little background in Constitutional law. I do believe the burden of proof falls on the military lawyers and not Orly or Cat. Rhodes. I am confident Orly will correct me if I’m wrong on that point.
I’m afraid Judge Land is going to make Judge Carter do all the work. I don’t think he cares one whit. Seems to me that Judge Carter is our only hope. These other judges all over the country are …well….never mind. It’s best to keep it to myself.
September 15th, 2009 @ 5:53 pm
After one loses ones head it doesn’t do much good to be then heard in court for an injury.
When the first principles of civil society are violated, and the rights of a whole people are invaded, the common forms of municipal law are not to be regarded. Men may then betake themselves to the law of nature; and, if they but conform their actions, to that standard, all cavils against them, betray either ignorance or dishonesty. There are some events in society, to which human laws cannot extend; but when applied to them lose all their force and efficacy. In short, when human laws contradict or discountenance the means, which are necessary to preserve the essential rights of any society, they defeat the proper end of all laws, and so become null and void.
Alexander Hamilton
23 Feb. 1775Papers 1:86–89, 121–22, 135–36
The Founders Constitution
September 15th, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
I’m assuming this judge also took an oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic also. Why are so many that took this oath not living up to it? Were they off daydreaming somewhere when they took this oath? They are doing everything in their power to protect the enemy.
September 15th, 2009 @ 6:38 pm
The judge’s comments do sound skewed, but as Orly has stated that it is not the full story, it is possible that Judge Land is better than we think.
If he did say that the proof falls on Captain Rhodes to prove that Obama is not eligible, Orly had the “certified copy” birth certificate from Kenya which should at least raise the issue to the level of requiring Obama to disprove the document’s veracity. Obama, as Orly correctly stated, has presented NOTHING to show that he is a natural-born citizen.
I’m sure judges make these arguments all the time, trying to turn the situation around, but Judge Land must know that there is enough doubt to issue a subpoena. He is a federal judge, isn’t he?
Judge Carter has the integrity and courage to go forward, but perhaps not Judge Land. We the people will not forget.
September 15th, 2009 @ 7:51 pm
Seems pretty simple to me, here we have proof Obamanation was born in Kenya. You prove it is NOT a legal document. Hummm, now we have two opposing documents which will PROVE to be the authentic one. Either way discovery will have to be made. It may take an appeal of the judges decision but discovery will be made.
G B
September 15th, 2009 @ 9:22 pm
Dr. Taitz,
It appars that having once met with this “jurist” you would have been doubly prepared….might I suggest…
Your honor, thi is not a political question BUT a plain matter of National security and a legal question….Not every American can be President, ONLY those that are Constitutionally qualified and the Constitution requires as a matter of law that Mr Obama be a “natural born Citizen” and this member of the military has specific orders…that as a matter of her oath of office she must question because she has seen two forms of proof that to her mean that Mr. Obama is a Usurper and his orders are void…one the recent Kenyan Birth Certificate, and Two and more importantly Mr Obama’s own admission that I ask the Court to take judicial notice of, that his citizenship was governed by the British Nationality Act of 1948, making Mr. Obama a British citizen at birth because of his own admission that because his father was a citizen of Great Britain, and so this officer has substantial grounds upon which to seek a restraining order in this case!
Does this help?
Use it in a motion for reconsideration…cause you know from the Judge’s in Court behavior that his decision is not going to be favorable….and what about the Court being required to accept as true the contents of the initial complaint????
Shawn
September 18th, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
Dr. Taitz,
I am writing to strongly encourage you to not let people opposed to your work silence you in any way. Please continue as you have for the last year.
I am the proprietor of a blog which specializes in bringing to the attention of the world the most spectacular, vicious, ignorant stupidity which the conservative world has to offer. I seek far and wide to find the greatest examples of their unhinged lunacy. Rarely do I find anything which can top your output of almost unbelievable intellectual inadequacy, and my blog will lose so much if you are not around to serve as a target for my (well-earned) contempt and ridicule.
So, please, don’t deprive all of us little people out here of the benefit of your apparently boundless, albeit unintentional, humor.