Federal judge throws out dumbass Berg's suit about Obama's citizenship
Kickin' Ass & Takin' Names
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on Sat, Oct. 25, 2008
Judge rejects Montco lawyer's bid to have Obama removed from ballot
By MICHAEL HINKELMAN
Philadelphia Daily News
hin...@phillynews.com 215-854-2656
A federal judge in Philadelphia last night threw out a complaint by a
Montgomery County lawyer who claimed that Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama was not qualified to be president and that his
name should be removed from the Nov. 4 ballot.
Philip J. Berg alleged in a complaint filed in federal district court
on Aug. 21 against Obama, the Democratic National Committee and the
Federal Election Commission, that Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya.
Berg claimed that the Democratic presidential standardbearer is not
even an American citizen but a citizen of Indonesia and therefore
ineligible to be president.
He alleged that if Obama was permitted to run for president and
subsequently found to be ineligible, he and other voters would be
disenfranchised.
U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick had denied Berg's request for a
temporary restraining order on Aug. 22 but had not ruled on the merits
of the suit until yesterday.
Obama and the Democratic National Committee had asked Surrick to
dismiss Berg's complaint in a court filing on Sept. 24.
They said that Berg's claims were "ridiculous" and "patently false,"
that Berg had "no standing" to challenge the qualifications of a
candidate for president because he had not shown the requisite harm to
himself.
Surrick agreed.
In a 34-page memorandum and opinion, the judge said Berg's allegations
of harm were "too vague and too attenuated" to confer standing on him
or any other voters.
Surrick ruled that Berg's attempts to use certain laws to gain
standing to pursue his claim that Obama was not a natural-born citizen
were "frivolous and not worthy of discussion."
The judge also said the harm Berg alleged did "not constitute an
injury in fact" and Berg's arguments to the contrary "ventured into
the unreasonable."
For example, Berg had claimed that Obama's nomination deprived
citizens of voting for Sen. Hillary Clinton in November. (Berg backed
Clinton in the primaries.)
Berg could not be reached for comment last night.
Obama was born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961, and the campaign posted a
document issued by Hawaii on its Web site, fight thesmears.com,
confirming his birth there.
Berg said in court papers that the image was a forgery.
The nonpartisan Web site FactCheck.org examined the original document
and said it was legitimate.
Further, a birth announcement in the Aug. 13, 1961, Honolulu
Advertiser listed Obama's birth there on Aug. 4. *