Birthers Win Court Case, Judge To Hear Alan Keyes' Claim On Obama's Eligibility

The birthers won a small court victory yesterday when a Los Angeles judge agreed to hear Alan Keyes' claim that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore ineligible to be U.S. president.

The case, Alan Keyes, et al. v Barack H. Obama, et al. was filed on Inauguration Day and is one of a raft of suits alleging Obama is ineligible to be president because he is not a "natural born citizen.” Such claims have fared badly in court to date. In December, for example, the Supreme Court dismissed without comment a case challenging Obama’s right to take the oath of office. Perhaps because of that history, Orly Taitz, the lawyer who filed the current suit, was greatly cheered by Monday’s hearing. "He's very determined to hear the case on the merits," Taitz said, referring to the judge. "He stated, the country needs to know if Mr. Obama is legitimate, if he can legitimately stay in the White House."

That’s not quite the way Asst. U.S. Atty. David DeJute heard the judge’s comments. Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said that “the judge did make a bunch of comments about having the matter correctly and thoroughly aired, once and if they got to the merits of the actual lawsuit, which was not the subject of today's discussion." The key word is “if,” Mrozek stressed. “We're literally at procedural grounds at this point in time," he said.

Meanwhile U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook is refusing to deploy to Afghanistan, saying that our "illegal president" has no authority to order him there. Note that the same lawyer that brought the Keyes case is representing Major Cook.

Cook’s lawyer, Orly Taitz, who has also challenged the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency in other courts, filed a request last week in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and status as a conscientious objector for his client. In the 20-page document — filed July 8 with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia — the California-based Taitz asks the court to consider granting his client’s request based upon Cook’s belief that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. Cook further states he “would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President’s command. ... simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties.”

As usual, over at Wingnut Central, there are at least a dozen birther-related stories, including one complaining that a World Net Daily reporter was "belittled" by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

"You know, Lester, I – I want to stay on this for a second, Lester, I want to stay on this for a second, because you're a smart man, right?" said Gibbs. "Hypothetical," said an unidentified reporter. "All right, all right, settle down in here. Only I get to make jokes like that," said Gibbs.

As part of their proof of Obama's ineligibility, WND points to an ongoing edit war on Wikipedia, where two times Obama's bio has showed him as born in Kenya. But "the man" keeps changing it back to Hawaii. Or something.