It seemed that President Obama’s release of his full birth certificate a couple of months ago — and his brutal skewering of Donald Trump at the White House correspondents dinner in May — completely took the air out of the “birther” movement.
Not so. None other than Orly Taitz , the Los Angeles lawyer, dentist and real estate agent, is still on the case, recently filing a Freedom of Information Act suit in federal court against Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue.
(Washington Post photo illustration) - Orly Taitz was reprimanded by Judge Royce Lamberth, who said she was “toying with the court or displaying her own stupidity.”
Taitz is looking for information that would prove that Obama’s Social Security number was from Connecticut, not Hawaii, and is therefore fraudulent.
But she’s having some inexplicable problems complying with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2(a)(1), which simply says that only the last four digits of a Social Security number should be used in any documents filed; the first five digits must be redacted.
Seems she repeatedly violated that rule by redacting the wrong numbers, sparking a blistering rebuke this week from Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court here, who wrote that she was “wasting the Court’s time with nonsense,” which is “not the way [for her] to have any hope of prevailing in this case.”
“After making the somewhat hysterical claim . . . that there may be ‘an employee in this court who is intentionally sabotaging’ her,” Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, wrote in his order, Taitz then “engaged” a courtroom deputy clerk “in a lengthy, accusatory conversation.”
Taitz “is either toying with the court or displaying her own stupidity,” Lamberth said. “There is no logical explanation she can provide as to why she is now wasting the court’s time. ”
(Memo to file: Send private note to Taitz to advise her that the last, the very last, federal judge she wants to provoke is Lamberth. Trust us on this. Or ask the Interior Department. Hapless Interior lawyers have appeared in his courtroom on countless occasions. )
NSC departures
The Obama administration is experiencing the usual third-year brain drain as top staff start drifting away, some to the 2012 campaign, some back to academia or private sector jobs, some to simply a change of pace from the grind.
Buzz at the National Security Council is that Rexon Ryu, now director of “Non-Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction” and before that top foreign policy adviser to former senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), is moving on to become head of the D.C. office of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice .
NSC legal adviser Mary DeRosa, in a job that’s become extremely high-profile in recent years, what with Guantanamo, torture and other hot-button issues, is said to be moving on after taking some time off. DeRosa, who had worked at the Department of Homeland Security and for the Senate Judiciary Committee, was nominated July 11 to be a public delegate to the U.N. General Assembly, a parting gift that may require some light lifting during the two-week UNGA meeting in Manhattan in September.
Word is that deputy NSC legal adviser Avril Haines, formerly a deputy legal adviser at the State Department, will move up to replace DeRosa.
Loading...
Comments
Featured Blogs & Columns
The Post Most: PoliticsMost-viewed stories, videos and galleries int he past two hours
Campaign 2012 tools
Loading...
Comments