As I noted earlier this month, Judge James Robertson dismissed one of the latest efforts to bring the issue of Barack Obama’s eligibility to serve as President before the courts. At the time, Judge Robertson also ordered the local attorney who had filed the suit on behalf of Obama birth truther Philip Berg to explain why he shouldn’t be sanctioned for filing a frivilous lawsuit.
Yesterday, Robertson issused a formal reprimand against that attorney:
This case ….. offered no hope whatsoever of success, and Mr. Hemenway surely knew it. Mr. Hemenway had no colorable authority for the proposition that Mr. Hollister’s contingent claim of “duty” could be the res in an interpleader suit, or, given the speculative and contingent nature of such a That holding was reaffirmed, on a second appeal, by the law of the case doctrine, see Saltany v. Bush, 960 F.2d 1060 (D.C. Cir. 1992), over the dissent of Judge Wald that “no hope whatsoever of success” was “not an appropriate substitute for the findings required by Rule 11,” id. at 1061. 2 – 10 – “duty,” that his claim had any particular dollar value. Mr. Hemenway’s complaint did not even allege the sine qua non of an interpleader suit -– that “[t]wo or more adverse claimants . . . are claiming or may claim to be entitled to such money or property, or to any one or more of the benefits . . . arising by virtue of any such obligation. . . .” 28 U.S.C. § 1335(a)(1). Mr. Hemenway’s suit was not a suit in interpleader It was legally frivolous. or in the nature of interpleader. By signing and filing a legally frivolous complaint, Mr. Hemenway violated at least Rule 11(b)(2).
Robertson stopped short of formally sanctioning Hemenway under Rule 11, mostly because he recognized that Hemenway was merely acting as local counsel in this case and that the responsible party, Philip Berg, was outside the Court’s jurisdiction because he is not admitted to practice in the District of Columbia. This seems like a just decision, especially given that Hemenway seems to have been suckered into signing on to this case by Berg and others.
Nonetheless, it’s a start. Hopefully, next time we’ll see a judge who hands Berg and/or Orly Taitz exactly what they deserve.
The full decision is available below:
27.OrderFindingRule11Violation-3-24-2008
Check out footnote 4. (last page).
sus,
yes, and ?
Judge uses Internet “hearsay” evidence “tweetered and blogged” by “Vigilaty Citizens” to say Obama has been vetted as a “native-born” NOT natural born. Mr. Hemenway is to be “punished” now he has a right to a hearing and “discovery to edvidence” to support his rights as an accused. Like producing a vaulted long copy of Obama’s Birth certificate, If it exsist Mr. Hemenway is guilty and if Obama can’t produce it Obama is NOT THE PRESIDENT!