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Judgment Day: Birther Taitz Fined $20,000 For Misconduct

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Finally fed up with Orly Taitz's repeated frivolous and conspiracy-ridden filings in a Birther lawsuit, the judge in the case has fined the crusading attorney $20,000.

Opening with a quote from Justice Cardozo on the privilege of bar membership, Judge Clay Land of the U.S. District Court in the Middle District Of Georgia goes on for some length -- the order is 43 pages -- explaining his reasoning:

When a lawyer files complaints and motions without a reasonable basis for believing that they are supported by existing law or a modification or extension of existing law, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer uses the courts as a platform for a political agenda disconnected from any legitimate legal cause of action, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer personally attacks opposing parties and disrespects the integrity of the judiciary, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer recklessly accuses a judge of violating the Judicial Code of Conduct with no supporting evidence beyond her dissatisfaction with the judge's rulings, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law, that lawyer ceases to advance her cause or the ends of justice.

Land continues:

Regrettably, the conduct of counsel Orly Taitz has crossed these lines, and Ms. Taitz must be sanctioned for her misconduct. After a full review of the sanctionable conduct, counsel's conduct leading up to that conduct, and counsel's response to the Court's show cause order, the Court finds that a monetary penalty of $20,000.00 shall be imposed upon counsel Orly Taitz as punishment for her misconduct, as a deterrent to prevent future misconduct, and to protect the integrity of the Court. Payment shall be made to the United States, through the Middle District of Georgia Clerk's Office, within thirty days of today's Order. If counsel fails to pay the sanction due, the U.S. Attorney will be authorized to commence collection proceedings.

[Late Update: Taitz tells TPMmuckraker: I have no plans to pay the fine.]

Our full coverage of Taitz suit, which began as an attempt by an Army captain to defy an order on the grounds that Barack Obama is not legitimately president, is here.

And here, as first posted by the Washington Independent, is Land's full order. He builds on and expands the fine work in his 14-page order last month that denounced not only Taitz, but her misguided movement:

Taitz Fined $20,000

Late Late Update: Commenter Nim notices that the judge on pg. 42 ordered a copy of the order to be sent to the California state bar, where Taitz is a member, and, in fact, already has problems.

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55 comments

Recommend Recommend (4)

October 13, 2009 11:06 AM   

If you are in California, do not get any teeth pulled or cleaned by Orly today or you might risk losing some additional teeth.

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October 13, 2009 11:09 AM    in reply to fsudirectory

I have a friend who lives in the same town!!! A REPUBLICAN.

Freaks of the OC

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October 13, 2009 1:08 PM    in reply to JohnMcCSF

Actually I know of a company in Santa Ana that needs an attorney like Orly. APPF.

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October 13, 2009 11:07 AM   

About time and Taitz isn't the only one who should be sanctioned

Hell, she should be disbarred

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October 13, 2009 12:07 PM    in reply to JohnMcCSF

Don't be short-sighted. If she were disbarred, how could she file more of these fantastic motions?

She's probably single-handedly responsible for three or four of Obama's "favorable" points, she's been funnier for longer and on a more consistent basis than Jay Leno's 10 o'clock show, and now she's helping to reduce the national debt! She's a hero is what she is.

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October 13, 2009 2:11 PM    in reply to semiotix

I, too, am highly amused by all of this BUT then I come to grips with reality. The federal courts are overburdened with real cases and people with legitimate concerns have to wait longer when courts have to deal with this crapola.

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rb6

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October 13, 2009 4:52 PM    in reply to TexasFilly

This is my reaction too.

In all honesty, the passages I found most shocking were the judge's recounting of his initial conference with her, where she responded to legal questions with birther nonsense, and implored him to ask the defendants questions not her, and then, unbelievably, she basically threatened to keep filing similar claims until he gave her what she wanted, which was an order for Obama to produce his birth certificate.

This is a federal judge.

Also, I had wondered about the lack of local counsel -- and indeed, he waived the normal local counsel requirements because of the expedited nature of the request, and then stated that he immediately knew that he had made a mistake. In addition, Orly didn't bother to meet electronic filing or other procedural requirements any more than she bothered with substantive legal arguments.

It bugs me that she could get away with this.

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October 14, 2009 1:53 AM    in reply to rb6

She isn't getting away with it -- x 2.

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October 13, 2009 11:15 AM   

Palin/Taitz, 2012!

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October 13, 2009 11:23 AM   

Wow. The federal judicial conspiracy runs even deeper than we had feared -- Taitz is the last, best hope of our beleaguered republic!!!

Also, can TPM post a gallery of her photos? I'm feeling oddly necrophilial today...

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October 14, 2009 2:45 AM    in reply to Cool Blue Reason

Bwahaha!

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October 13, 2009 11:28 AM   

The fun never ends. Now she's got a new judge to be outraged about.

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October 13, 2009 11:30 AM   

Maybe Glen Beck ought to pay the fine?

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October 23, 2009 12:33 PM    in reply to JEP07

Didn't Glenn Beck rape and murder a young girl in 1990?

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October 13, 2009 11:32 AM   

She fought the Law and the Law won ...

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October 13, 2009 2:56 PM    in reply to traitorjoe

Back in the olden times, some "liberals" would have done things like point out that in his earlier ruling the judge showed obvious bias. OTOH, there were also the far-left fascist types who wouldn't do things like that but who instead had no problem with judges doing things like that as long as it broke their way. What happened to the first kind of "liberals"?

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October 13, 2009 5:57 PM    in reply to LonewackoDotCom3

Dear LoneWacko, or 24Ahead, or whatever the hell else you call yourself: You are an obsessive moron. Give it up, or better yet, just go away. You've polluted enough of the internet with your inane ramblings.

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October 13, 2009 6:16 PM    in reply to LonewackoDotCom3

Wacko, back in the days of yore, conservatives would not have championed a suspected killer and rapist, either. Why won't Glenn Beck deny that he raped and killed a young girl in 1990?

Liberal bias is not defined as opposition to the insanity that conservatives want to believe, you know.

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October 14, 2009 1:59 AM    in reply to LonewackoDotCom3

"far-leftr fascist types" ignores several directly relevant facts:

1. Socialists are LEFt-wing.

2. Among those Hitler demonized and marked for extermination wre Socialists -- because Hitler was RIGHT-wing.

3. Hitler was a fascist. Fascist is, ergo, RIGHT-wing.

4. Winston Churchill, who was an enemy of Hitler, and of whom Hitler was an enemy, was a Socialist.

Do us all -- beginning with yourself -- a favor: STFU until you know what you're talking about.

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October 13, 2009 11:33 AM   

Just heard Joy Behar say that Taitz is going to be on her show on HLN tonight. That should be a fun one. :-)

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LFC

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October 13, 2009 11:36 AM   

"Stupid is as stupid does, sir."

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October 13, 2009 11:46 AM   

It's like the Brittany Spears meltdown a few years ago. First I was gleeful and derisive, then I was entertained by the ongoing spectacle, that gave way to fascinated horror, and, finally, I realized how truly mentally ill she was and felt pity.

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October 13, 2009 11:47 AM   

Orly certainly strikes interesting poses....maybe that's her aim to become the "Fox of Crazies"...

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October 13, 2009 5:58 PM    in reply to Progressive Party

Maybe she just needs a chiropractor.

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October 14, 2009 2:00 AM    in reply to commie atheist

Maybe she's just naturally bent.

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October 13, 2009 11:53 AM   

How much longer is her husband going to bankroll this nonsense?

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October 13, 2009 12:01 PM   

If she keeps this up she will find herself in jail for contempt.

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October 13, 2009 12:30 PM    in reply to MichiganMark

Yes.

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October 13, 2009 12:52 PM    in reply to MichiganMark

The failure to pay a judgment isn't grounds for contempt but the US Attorneys office can put a lien on any real property in her name, levy on any bank accounts, take her judgment debtor examination (and hold her in contempt if she fails to appear), etc. And the referral to the State Bar will prompt an investigation (although suspension, reprimand or disbarment is going to be years away)

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October 13, 2009 2:18 PM    in reply to richard f

If California is anything like Arizona, we're not talking years. Months perhaps. I would imagine the Bar will give some priority to this matter.

Watching Orly, I keep flashing back on Borat. Can she possibly be for real?

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October 13, 2009 3:10 PM    in reply to Parallax857

I would imagine the Bar will give some priority to this matter.
How come?
Is the state having budget problems?

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October 13, 2009 6:43 PM    in reply to Parallax857

Bar complaints take a long time to be resolved in California. It won't happen min months

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October 13, 2009 12:31 PM   

Sascha Baron Cohen's gonna have to make an appearance sooner or later - he cannot possibly keep this up!

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October 13, 2009 1:01 PM   

1) Does anyone else find more then a little ironic that this clown wasn't actually born in the US ? She received her citizenship by marrying an American.

2) I know TPM is getting some sick satisfaction by using the 'so freaky looking I cannot turn away' picture, but for the love of everything good and true, find another picture. I feel dirty every she looks at me.

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October 13, 2009 4:26 PM    in reply to ScottW

>>> She received her citizenship by marrying an American.

???

Her husband, Yosef, was born in Riga, Latvia, that is on the east coast of the Baltic sea.

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October 13, 2009 5:53 PM    in reply to Just Browsing

The fact that you know that is a little bit scary to me.

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October 13, 2009 7:41 PM    in reply to commie atheist

That, and more, can be read in "The Info Mesa" by Ed Regis. Reference to Yosef Taitz starts on page 122. The whole book is about the start up of his company, Daylight Chemical Information Systems. Just sourcing my statement.

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October 14, 2009 2:03 AM    in reply to Just Browsing

So when are we gonna do discovery on HER "long form" birth certificate? Even if it IS in a foreign language?

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October 14, 2009 9:25 AM    in reply to JNagarya

I've no doubt that she is an enemy combatent.

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October 13, 2009 1:03 PM   

Lock her ass up.

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October 13, 2009 1:19 PM   

I'm gnawing on the possibility that she is "in fact" not an attorney at all but a brilliant performance artist. In fact, doesn't she have a stunning resemblance to Sacha Baron Cohen? M

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October 13, 2009 1:30 PM   

I'm reminiscing how the right used to have this reverence for "Rule of Law" when it pertained to embarrassing Clinton about his extramarital action.

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October 13, 2009 2:34 PM   

Her oily Taitz are just nasty.

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October 13, 2009 2:43 PM   

Wow. Check out page 27 Judge Land's order...

'...perhaps an eccentric citizen has become convinced that the President is an alien from Mars, and the courts should order DNA testing to enforce the Constitution[3]. Or, more to the point, perhaps the Court should issue a nationwide injunction that prevents the U.S. Army from sending any soldier to Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere else until Ms. Taitz is permitted to depose the President in the Oval Office.

[3] The Court does not make this observation simply as a rhetorical device for emphasis; the Court has actually received correspondence assailing its previous order in which the sender, who, incidentally, challenged (me) to a "round of fisticuffs on the Courthouse Square," asserted that the President is not human.'

You gotta love it.

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October 13, 2009 3:00 PM   

... or page 21, where Judge Land addresses her comparison of herself to Thurgood Marshall...

'Justice Marshall had real evidence that black children were being sent to inferior segregated schools based solely on the color of their skin. (...) Counsel here has an affidavit from someone who allegedly paid off a government official to rummage through the files at a Kenyan hospital to obtain what counsel contends is the President's "authentic" birth certificate.'

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October 13, 2009 3:43 PM   

I think she know exactly what she's doing. Politics-as-demented-theater has become an established rightwing pathway to bankable notoriety; if Taitz gets disbarred it only adds to her cache. She will eventually fade, possibly (probably) get disbarred; but as a friend once said: "It's attention." This is the modern pathway to 'success' for less-than-brilliant wingnuttery. How long before she shows up as a 'legal analyst' on FOX? She knows her time is limited; look for her to fully capitalize on 15 mins.

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October 13, 2009 3:55 PM    in reply to Conrads Ghost

Mwahaaahaaahaaa!

How long before she shows up as a 'legal analyst' on FOX?

Bring it, Roger Ailes. She needs the money.

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October 13, 2009 4:05 PM    in reply to Minne sconsin

Right, she does the legal commentary and Joe Wilson does the "color" commentary. This is a combination the slobbering, brain-dead zombies on the right will wet their pants over.

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October 13, 2009 6:19 PM    in reply to Johnbo

I heard Sarah Palin will be commenting on foreign policy.

Three zombies and they're out!

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October 14, 2009 2:09 AM    in reply to seashell

Beginning with a careful statement of the dimensions of her porch.

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October 13, 2009 4:01 PM   


Taitz will come out OK in the end. After she loses her license to practice law she can still work as a dentist and a real estate agent. . . maybe both at the same time.

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October 13, 2009 7:03 PM   

My favorite part is where the judge refutes her assertion that she saw him in a Georgia coffee shop hobnobbing with Attorney General Eric Holder (which, of course, would be detrimental to her case). You can't make this stuff up!

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October 14, 2009 1:54 AM    in reply to Hussein Stemper

But Oily Tits CAN make it up!

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October 13, 2009 7:07 PM   

She says she won't pay. She must know that means she'll go to jail.

I smell "martyr."

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October 13, 2009 9:13 PM   

Gotta read previous comments before posting--my bad, I see she isn't in danger of jail.

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