Orly Taitz
SANTA ANA, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-The Southern California attorney who has challenged U.S. President Barack Obama's qualifications to be president filed a blistering motion Tuesday to have her federal lawsuit reinstated.
Attorney Orly Taitz of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., says in a lawsuit filed on behalf of her client that Obama is unable to serve as the nation's commander in chief because the Democrat was born in Kenya.
In Taitz's motion to U.S. District Court Judge David Carter, she alleges that a law clerk working for the judge, Siddharth Velamoor, had previously worked for the law firm of Perkins Coie, which had defended Obama in the case.
The motion, filed in the Central District of California, alleges also that Velamoor wrote most of Carter's ruling throwing out her lawsuit.
"The order to dismiss this case was de facto written or largely influenced by an attorney who until recently worked for a firm representing the defendant in this case, and who currently is working as a clerk for the presiding judge, as such most of the order is tainted by bias," the motion said.
Taitz said the order dismissing her lawsuit "reads as if it is written by the defense counsel," noting that it is "highly biased" against the plaintiffs.
"This order is particularly used as a tool in what seems to be a concerted effort by this court and Judge Clay D. Land ... to use the power of federal judiciary to publicly lynch the undersigned counsel," she wrote.
Land fined Taitz $20,000 for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit in his Georgia federal court also on behalf of Army Capt. Connie Rhodes, who argued she should not have to serve in Iraq because Obama was not born in the United States.
In dismissing Taitz's lawsuit, Carter wrote: "In order for Plaintiffs' alleged injury to be fully addressed, Plaintiffs would have the Court intervene, upheave the results of a national election, declare the President illegitimate, shut down the functioning of the government of the United States, and leave this country defenseless."
Carter was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Land is an Appointee of George W. Bush, a Republican.
The case was just one of a handful of lawsuits challenging Obama's citizenship.
Philip Berg, a former deputy Pennsylvania attorney general, for one, unsuccessfully sought to enjoin the Democratic National Committee from nominating Obama.
Attorney Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., argued in his lawsuit that Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen, which the constitution requires of presidents.
For his part, Obama has provided a Certificate of Live Birth indicating he was born in Honolulu in 1961.
From Legal Newsline: Reach staff reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.