mighty Klayman has struck out
Today the Alabama Supreme Court issued its 7-2 decision in the case of McInnish v. Chapman, and the decision goes against plaintiffs Hugh Chapman and Virgil Goode, who were trying to force the Alabama Secretary of State to verify Obama’s eligibility to be on the 2102 Alabama presidential ballot. Larry Klayman was the attorney for the Appellants.
The Court’s Majority issued no written opinion, only affirming the lower court decision dismissing the case.
- Majority decision to affirm dismissal, no opinion (Stuart, Murdock, Shaw, Main, Wise)
- Concurring opinion (Bolin)
- Concurring opinion (Bryan)
- Dissenting Opinion (Moore)
- Dissenting Opinion (Parker)
Chief Justice Roy Moore issued the major dissenting opinion, and Justice Bolin issued a concurring opinion specifically addressed to Moore’s dissent. Chief Justice Moore states that under Alabama Law, Secretary of State Chapman has an affirmative duty to verify candidate eligibility. Justice Bolin agrees that candidate eligibility is an important public interest, but that Alabama statutes do not place a duty on the Secretary of State to verify it. Further Justice Bolin points out that Secretary of State Chapman is a nonjudicial officer with no subpoena power or investigative authority. Justice Bolin concludes:
Under our current structure, however, the burden of investigating a presidential candidate’s qualifications is best left – unfortunately or not – to the candidate’s political party….
As I understand his position, Justice Bolin is saying that a state statute requiring verification of eligibility for candidates for president is a desirable thing, given his belief that the federal courts are prohibited from adjudicating eligibility because of the Political Question Doctrine.
Justice Bryan also issued a concurring opinion, briefly stating his belief that legislation could be passed to allow verification of candidate eligibility.
Chief Justice Moore’s dissenting opinion goes to the details of the Alabama statutes involved and at a brief reading has no particular high points. It is an analysis on the merits.
Chief Justice Parker also dissents from the majority opinion, supporting the analysis of Chief Justice Moore, but disagreeing on the Secretary of State’s affirmative duty to investigate candidate eligibility.
A text search of all of the opinions affirms my opinion that the Affidavit of Mike Zullo is irrelevant to the decision, being cited not once, except that the dissenting opinion from Justice Parker made reference to materials submitted previously to the Secretary of State that were sufficient, in his mind, to warrant investigation. Those materials reference results of Zullo’s investigation and contain a brief statement from him.
Read more:
It took one year not to write an opinion?
Actually, there was a dissenting opinion and a concurring opinion, but the majority issued no opinion.
If I read the document correctly, Judge Moore argued that the SoS has a responsibility to investigate the qualifications of presidential eligibility enough though the law does not give the SoS that duty. Gee–talk about activist judges!
Hmm, I am shocked. You mean the daffydavit did not sway the Court? And to think that they did not even mention Supreme Commander Zullo and the keystone cops. Why it is almost as if the Court did not think that it had an independent obligation to investigate the facts.
“McInnish Appeal denied in Alabama”– It is of no concern.
And, as expected (but it is always useful to point out the simple fact to any birthers who may be reading this), even the two dissents did not say ANYTHING about the birther claims that Obama was not born in Hawaii and that his birth certificate is forged.
Thus, birthers lost on the legal issue of whether the Alabama Secretary of State should review eligibility, but they lost even worse on their claims about Obama’s birth certificate. Despite Chief Justice Moore’s obvious dislike of Obama, even he did not want to go into the birth certificate claims in his dissent.
Who could have predicted that?
Ops, should have scrolled down.
Moore’s dissent seems to boil down to ” SOS should vet the candidate because SOS should vet the candidate.” He cites no relevant law, code, statute or common practice for this… just an assertion that “well, he should.”
What an embarrassment to the profession of law.
It looks like he decided that he needed to throw a bone to the birthers.
First post at BirtherReport: It’s a moral victory!!!
M.B. · 18 minutes ago
Alabama Supreme Court denies the McInnish appeal, but brave Judge Moore stands up for justice by arguing the Secretary of State SHOULD have investigated Obama. So it’s a moral victory for our side, thanks to one of the few moral judges in America.
http://www.birtherreport.com/2014/03/levin-obama-presidential-library-kenya.html#idc-cover
Parker did …
Even worse, he references cases that birthers lost to make his argument, yet doesn’t acknowledge those cases lost.
Which changes what exactly? LOL
Look for him in Iowa and New Hampshire.
I wish I was kidding.
There is another term for moral victories–losses.
Looks like my prognostication of 7-2 split was right on including the weasel wording of Moore and Parker….Yay Obots..😀
OK. I have finally stopped rewriting the article for now.
Moral.
That word… it does not mean what you think it means.
Come on Mississippi…today is as good of day as any to give the birthers another shoot down! 😀
It’s not a good day in Birtherstan and its looking like the month is going to be downright ugly.
Goes along with the other 200+ moral victories…and the President is still in the WH.
“A text search of all of the opinions affirms my opinion that the Affidavit of Mike Zullo is irrelevant, being cited not once.”
Awwww! Time for a Birther Pity Party with obnoxious posts and free flowing birther tears. Where’s John?
Sounds like it might be Universe Shattering, for the birthers. 😛
I will cede them all the “moral victories” they need and want, if it will keep them away from governance and slow-moving livestock.
I don’t have time to read it thoroughly now, but in Moore’s dissent he writes:
Should he who was elected to the presidency be determined to be ineligible, the remedy of impeachment is available through the United States Congress, and the plaintiffs in this case, McInnish and Goode, can pursue this remedy through their representatives in Congress.
But the birthers claim that Obama can’t be impeached because USURPER!
Even though he was not a party to this lawsuit and appeal, this is a HUGE victory for President Obama.
Zullo’s and Arpaio’s “evidence” did not sway SEVEN ELECTED Republican Justices.
So birthers will spin this as “Roy Moore tells Congress to act” and urge their readers to “write angry letters to Congress”? Whodathunk!
And it didn’t sway the other two to even make a statement along the lines of “this evidence, if presented in the proper court, would raise serious concerns” (or whatever that Alabama judge once wrote).
Congratulations, KKKlayman, Zullo and birthers – you’re officially too crazy even for Roy Moore!
Not many people can claim that accolade.
I think the timing of Fred Phelp’s death and the final issuance of this long-delayed judgment is suspicious. I’m hoping that all people TRULY concerned about the ineligibility of the president will
go barking mad, run in circles and trip over the plastic lawn furniture in their moms’ basementsdo everything they can to investigate any possible connection. It would especially oblige if you can create lots of videos. Hint: Perhaps there was a scuba diver involved?ALINSKYITE RIDICULE
😆
So the two birther justices, (Moore and Parker), pandered to the Birtherstani, but to no avail.
What I don’t understand is why Moore isn’t up on ethics charges for not recusing himself, considering he’s friends with the plaintiff’s attorney (Larry Klayman), endorsed Klayman’s bid for Senate, and both are columnists for WND. Not to mention Moore (and his protege Parker) have stated their opinion on President Obama’s eligibility in the past. Clear judicial bias from both of them.
I also find it funny that Moore cited a whole batch of past Birther cases, and didn’t really bother to note the eventual fate of all of those cases. Almost like he was, oh, I dunno, cherry-picking birther arguments and ignoring the fact that other courts ruled against those cases.
You’re absolutely right. But given Moore’s history, he appears to place himself above the law, just to the right hand of God, and therefore not bound by earthly codes of conduct. Whatever Moore does is right because Moore is doing it–surely you see the logic in that?
http://networkedblogs.com/V66on
Just as predicted
So BR’s article says “Here’s the long-awaited ruling for the McInnish/Goode v Alabama Secretary of State eligibility case..”
… and launches right into a quote from Moore’s dissent.
I predicted this.
Never underestimate the birthers’ ability to weave raw bull-crap into the most beautiful pair of virgin bull-crap pants you’ve ever seen, and then to strut around in them oblivious of the smell.
This pic says it all, to me anyway
http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu46/RosaBella75/beating_a_dead_horse.jpg
Note: No horses were harmed…they were already dead.
The reactions at Birfer Report are hilarious; apparently, this is a “turning point.”
This is my favorite:
★FALCON★ 137p · 10 minutes ago
Essentially, Moore said Obama is ineligible, but the Alabama Supreme Court is not the proper venue. There were plenty of challenges before the elections, and after the elections and all give the same rotten excuses – it’s too early / it’s too late.
The only thing that will stop this tyranny is a full-blown revolt and we’re getting closer everyday.
One can always rely on BirdBoy the Keyboard Warrior for the most delicious of Birfer tears. His hate-boner must be downright painful today.
The only “Revolt” Falcon has, is to turn off his computer and get out of his mother’s basement. His mom would probably appreciate it.
Time* to give this obsession with ‘vetting’ candidates a name, and it’s an obvious one:
Candidate ID
What with this rampant “show me your papers” mentality, it’s no wonder they’re fawning over Putin.
I expect any forthcoming legislation in AL, as speculated in the opinion today (and attempted in various states in recent years) to be styled the Show Me Your Papers, Boy Act of [YEAR].
And, hey, Falcon is right. On a long enough timeline, there will certainly be an armed revolt in this country. We’ve had a few in the past. We certainly are 1 day closer to the next one, with every passing day. 😉
* OK, well, past time.
May the birthers have many more of these Moral Victories! 🙂
If Alabama wants to pass a law requiring Presidential candidates to produce their birth certificates, that would be fine with me. The only downside would be if a state Secretary of State decided that a birth certificate isn’t enough and came up with his or her own definition of “natural-born citizen.”
My favorite:
From: I Tell it Like it is –
“Only the American Citizens can remove Obama, if they had enough guts to do it. All it would take is to have 50 million Americans in DC on May 16th. It won’t happen because the American Citizens are too soft and don’t have the fire in their belly, and the criminals in DC know it.”
50 Million? Where in the heck are they going to get 50 million birthers with guns? LMAO Not all righties are birthers and Mitt Romney only got 10.9 million more than that in general election total votes. LOL That’s some awesome brand of crazy there.
I hope the direction is down.
Klayman and Zullo to appear on Freedom Friday tonight. Mercifully, I have a dinner engagement.
Be sure to give your dinner time to settle before you take a listen.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the direction is down for them…… that’s not a turning point.
It would be fine, and it wouldn’t have mattered. Just like in Arizona and Kansas, they’d have accepted the Hawaii COLB or the verification.
Just checked the Freedom Friday promo – http://ppsimmons.blogspot.com/2014/03/ala-sup-ct-decideds-in-obama-case-7-2.html – and the statement from Zullo is fascinating:
Investigator Mike Zullo says: “It is clear that the argument here is the lack of statutory provision giving the Secretary of State the legal authority to conduct an investigation to verify the legitimacy of a presidential candidate to be placed on ballot of the respective states. There clearly is a lack of statutory authority and legal mechanism in place for a Secretary of State in any of the fifty states to conduct that type of investigation. This Alabama Supreme Court adjudication in no way reflects the question that is really at hand – the authenticity of the document provided to the public of proof- positive that Mr. Obama was in fact born on us soil thus fulfilling the “soil requirement” to be eligible to hold the highest office in the land.”
Zullo continued, “The challenge before the American people going forward to prevent this type of atrocity form ever happening again has to be the creation of legislation providing legal authority to empower the Secretary of State in order to fully ascertain the most vital information of a candidate’s qualifications, and to have the legal authority to require the one document that every American citizen gets as they draw their first breath – an official state birth certificate free from anomalies, errors and questions.”
Looks to me like he’s morphing into a legal scholar with an emphasis on Presidential eligibility. Do we have a new day dawning for “Investigator Mike Zullo”? Is Maricopa County too small for him?
Any day now.
This isn’t just a moral victory, at least to this birther generalissimo:
“After the initial reaction to the Alabama Supreme Court decision, I realized this is a clearcut, tactical victory…All we needed was Chief Justice Moore’s, plus one more vote for support to set in motion the next chain of events. Now it is up to Zullo to take this puppy over the goal line.”
Birthers: confusing losing for winning since 2008.
Putting on my Prediction Cap …. this Friday’s radio appearance (the only soapbox apparently still available to Patrolman Zullo) wil be declared to have been the Big March Reveal …. and it’s full of dusted-off Donofrio-isms!
Well, OK, hopefully not.
The promo does sound like more push for Candidate ID. Show me your papers, please.
Every time I vote here in Okieland, and am asked to present my ID, I grit my teeth. Signing the rolls not good enough???
When will this disingenuous masters of faux concern realize what a bottomless pit “Show me your papers, boy” is?
Do you think there is money in the candidate ID movement? That is, after all, what Mr. Zullo is looking for.
I wonder if Zullo is looking to follow in the footsteps of Kris Kobach who moved on to elected office after flogging the immigration pony half to death?
Sheriff Zullo? Governor Zullo? Scary, ain’t it?
There is money (and ideology points) in winning elections and in being in the majority in legislatures.
Candidates and parties look to save money by eliminating opponents in any way possible prior to primaries/elections. The cheapest route to office is getting there unopposed!
Why, even Obama hisself used a signature requirement to eliminate an opponent in Illinois.
Wow! Judge Roy Moore came through. Unfortunately is influence could not carry the day.
True. But you can’t question everyone……or maybe you can!!
Just read this comment on BR:
“And 2 of the justices were so disgusted with Moore’s and Parker’s fact and legal free diatribes they wrote a formal rebuttal to the dissenters.”
Wow….now THOSE I’d love to read.
“Programming note: Attorney Larry Klayman had phone issues and couldn’t call in…”
(from BR)
….. I guess KKKlayman is unable to pay his phonecompany ….
The reports of the MCSD CCP’s investigation failure are greatly exaggerated.
If I heard right, Gallups seemed to say that the “universe shattering” information is going to come from the Arpaio criminal investigation which is not about the birth certificate and that press conference would be followed by Zullo releasing everything he has on the birth certificate.
Wouldn’t that limit the type of crimes they could investigate? Would that mean the “crime” had to have been committed in Maricopa County?
Don’t like that story? Wait a few days, they’ll have a new one for you.
Gallups and Zullo were spinning so fast that I got nauseous just listening.
Why do you think that?
One would think so, but I find it hard to imagine any crime committed in Maricopa County that would shatter the universe.
Follow the link to the decision and scroll down.
How do you know?
Why do you call it the MCSD?
Arpaio (like all Arizona peace officers) has authority anywhere in the state but that isn’t going to help him in this Quixotic quest.
He can’t be wielding too much influence if he couldn’t convince seven Republican judges to agree with him.
Having just had an opportunity to review the decisions, I’m troubled by Justice Parker’s comments:
“McInnish attached certain
documentation to his mandamus petition, which, if presented to
the appropriate forum as part of a proper evidentiary
presentation, would raise serious questions about the
authenticity of both the ‘short form’ and the ‘long form’
birth certificates of President Obama that have been made
public.”
How any judge who should be used to what evidence is can make that statement should confirm the sorry state of justice in Alabama.
a birfoon left this beaut over at ORYR:
‘This is treason and all obots will burn in hellfire and I will laugh and laugh and tell them they were asking for it. G-d I hate obots so much. My neighbor is obot and I warned him Barry Soetero will come for his white daughters and he got a restraining order against me but WHO IS GOING TO HELL NOW NOT ME’
After TWO-AND-A-HALF YEARS, they still have not even identified which statute(s) they think (and I use that word hesitantly) have been violated.
You couldn’t “exaggerate” that failure if you summarized their “investigation” with a cartoon of one of their 50-cent Crown Vic cruisers, decked out like a parade float in squirting flowers, driving in circles while clowns did a can-can on the hood, roof, and trunk lid.
“A text search of all of the opinions affirms my opinion that the Affidavit of Mike Zullo is irrelevant, being cited not once.”
Not Necessarily Doc! Without actually stating it, it appears Zullo’s affidavit or in more general terms, the CCP’s work on the birth certificate, should have compelled the SOS to vet Obama:
From Parker:
For the following reasons, I believe that,
in the present case, the Secretary of State received notice
sufficient to raise a duty to investigate the qualifications
of President Barack Hussein Obama before including him as a
candidate on Alabama’s election ballot.
….
That documentation served by McInnish
on the Secretary of State was sufficient to put the Secretary
of State on notice and raise a duty to investigate the
qualifications of President Obama before including him as a
candidate on an Alabama election ballot.
Judge Parker smells a Rat and Judge Roy Moore agrees.
unfortunately, their influence could not win the day with the court.
He didn’t say they would “raise serious questions” in a courtroom.
Maybe “the appropriate forum” means “a meeting room at a convention of conspiracy loons”, or “the local Denny’s after the monthly dinner meeting of the Stagnant Backwater, Alabama chapter of the Tea Party”…
“Funny, you don’t look obish.”
Exactly the same thing he said before (and which made him a birther hero), isn’t it?
Nobody tried this stunt when Obama was running again, what makes you think anyone will be so foolish in the future?
Anything seen as partisan antics will severely backfire.
That’s a good point, and I have updated the ending of the article.
I would say, however, that none of the justices stated that they believed these unnamed materials.
They smell each other, John And fortunately, their influence could not overturn the overwhelming rejection of Birther lunacy by the courts and prosecutors across this land, and the Congress of the United States. You’re the kind of anarchist who thinks it would be great to find a crazy judge or Sheriff to make decisions you favor. Haven’t Birthers noticed, that even if one came along, their decisions would immediately be overturned or blocked by appeals to saner courts.
Lunatics are the last people to realize that they are lunatics. We know you’re a lunatic, John. Isn’t it about your turn?
Parker is referring to the material submitted directly to the Secretary of State in the previous challenge (McInnish). Zullo’s affidavit was filed directly with the court in this case.
Different materials.
Doc: Did you actually update this article based on something john pointed out without verifying that he was correct? Because, as bob points out, Parker is not referencing Zullo’s affidavit. He’s referencing this thing that McInnish wrote. http://www.scribd.com/doc/85516572/2012-03-06-AL-McInnish-v-Exhibit-2-White-Paper
No, I didn’t.
First, I didn’t say in my update that Zullo’s affidavit had been referenced. Second, I re-read the opinion and didn’t rely on John’s comment for what it said.
The actual language by Parker, citing his earlier unpublished opinion, was “certain documentation.” Then he wrote:
The March 2013 Writ of Mandamus contained a Press Release from Joe Arpaio that said:
So while the Zullo affidavit was not operative in Parker’s decision, things that Zullo said and did are not wholly irrelevant to language in the dissenting opinion of Parker.
In order to prevent confusion, I have added a clarifying sentence to the article: “Those materials reference results of Zullo’s investigation and contain a brief statement from him.”
I don’t know that it would necessarily be seen as partisan with Obama out of the picture. If Hillary is the Democratic nominee, is anyone going to be questioning her eligibility, other than that nutcase in Alaska who believes that women aren’t eligible for any public office?
However, it would be interesting if Alabama passes such a law and Ted Cruz becomes the Republican nominee. The Alabama SOS asks for his birth certificate and it shows that he was born in Canada. Then what?
This is technically correct but, I think, a bit misleading. McInnish’s Writ of Mandamus is dated March 6, 2012–six days after Sheriff Joe’s original press conference. What we think of today as “Zullo’s investigation” had barely begun by then (although, to be fair, that is mostly because it didn’t really become “Zullo’s investigation” until after he hooked up with Gallups). With respect to this case, the interest in Zullo’s investigation is mostly over his 57-page affidavit, which came over a year later. What you’ve referenced is a single paragraph from about 70 pages of documentation McInnish submitted over a year before Zullo’s opus.
But, I don’t want to get too distracted by this detail because nothing Zullo or Apaio or Taitz or Corsi (or poor, attention-starved Donald Trump, LOL) say or do will ever sway a court decision against Obama. What really matters in this case, I think, is that Justice Parker says is that he believes that this BS “evidence” submitted by an incompetent Alabama Republican insider should have warranted an investigation by the Secretary of State over whether the President of the United States is a secret foreigner.
Pandora’s Box is open. Any Democratic candidate will be fair game for the birthers who will believe any made-up story of how Hillary was born in France during her parents’ vacation and that we don’t really know who her real parents were because her birth certificate has layers.
Remember that they now operate under the premise that Democrats routinely forge birth certificates and love to rub an ineligible candidate in the “enlightened” people’s faces.
Do you really think birthers will miss out on the opportunity to continue birfin’? Do you think they will just keep obsessing over Obama even if he’s been out of office for years?
The Birfoons will segue from ….
Obama is an illegal Manchurian foreign mooslem, commie to …
Hillary is a Benghazi soldier kiiller who bathes in the blood of aborted babies whilst counting the money from Whitewater she earned as a puppet of Bill who is really running the Presidency whilst being controlled by the Illuminati
Or something
Don’t forget the 3.5 million people she had killed to keep her records sealed, or something. It’s inevitable since she’ll issue the same first EO as Obama (and Bush, and Clinton, and Bush sr., and…) regulating access to presidential records.
My money is on “Hillary is Bill Clinton in drag, and Bill Clinton is a doppelganger created using alien cloning technology”. And maybe losing candidate Ted “Rodrigo” Cruz will start Benghaaaaaaazi impeachment hearings before she’s even sworn in office. Oh, it’s such fun to make predictions, only to see even crazier things actually happening. 😉
I have an even more insane prediction:
“The Asylum” will stop making laughably bad mockbusters, and focus on fleshing out Sharknado into a 3 movie a year franchsie.
Coverage at the American Bar Association Journal:
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/alabama_supreme_court_affirms_dismissal_of_birther_lawsuit/