One month ago Federal Judge Clay Land slapped Birther Queen Orly Taitz with $ 20,000 in sanctions for her frivolous lawsuits challenging President Obama’s legitimacy to serve as President.
One month later, Orly says she has no intention of paying the sanction:
California attorney Orly Taitz, facing a $20,000 sanction from the federal judge presiding over the Mark Shelnutt trial, said on the payment’s deadline that she had no intention of paying.
“Absolutely not,” Taitz said Thursday afternoon when asked whether she would pay. “I have filed an appeal. It was a complete abuse of power.”
The order stems from a Sept. 17 motion Taitz filed on behalf of former client Capt. Connie Rhodes, who sought to stop her deployment to Iraq on arguments that President Barack Obama couldn’t legitimately hold office. U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land told Taitz the previous day that she could face sanctions if she ever again filed a “frivolous” suit in his court. When Taitz filed the motion for emergency stay, Land gave Taitz two weeks to explain why he shouldn’t sanction her $10,000.
On the deadline, Taitz, who no longer represented the captain, responded with a motion to recuse Land from the case and a request to extend her deadline.
In his 43-page order, Land lays out a timeline of Taitz’s actions in his court, discusses why her numerous court filings were frivolous and addresses point-by-point her arguments for why he should be recused from the case. He also increased the original sanction by another $10,000. Taitz said it’s ludicrous that Land would impose sanctions on her because she hasn’t made sufficient inquiries. She said no other attorney in the country has done more work traveling the country and speaking with FBI and government officials.
“He imposed those sanctions to silence me,” Taitz said. “If judges start punishing attorneys, then we end up in a totalitarian regime. This can’t go on.”
Of course, Orly’s appeal does nothing to stop enforcement of the judgment unless she posts a bond pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 62(d). Since she hasn’t done that, she can expect to hear from the U.S. Attorney’s office very soon.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
So Orly has never heard of judges punishing attorneys? Perhaps she slept through that day in class? She did go to law school, right?