This is such a stupid lawsuit, I was hesitant to even diary this ruling - we've all heard about it, it's inconsequential and nuts. Sorry if someone has already posted about this, I searched and couldn't find anything.
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.
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.
For those of you who have been living in a bell jar for the past 10 years, Berg's a Bush-hater from way back; in 2001 he asked Supreme Court Justices Thomas, Scalia and O'Connor to voluntarily disbar themselves for their decision in Bush v. Gore (not a bad request - but I digress). He also sued President Bush and 155 others in 2004 under a RICO lawsuit on behalf of Willie Rodriguez, who accused Bush (and the "others") of complicity in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
This time around, Berg's lawsuit hinged on the all important Obama birth certificate - or the lack thereof. Yes - THIS is the nut who started all that birth certificate crap...
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.
If you want to get knee deep into all of Berg's insanity, see the extensive research that Jonohex did for this diary yesterday. (I'm sure Jonohex had no idea that this ruling came down yesterday as well - I hate that, it would have made such a great finish to his diary!).
Read about the ruling here: http://www.philly.com/...
UPDATE: For your listening pleasure, here is a phone interview with Berg on the Michael Savage radio talk show where he discusses the "tape" he supposedly has of B's patrenal grandmom "confessing" that B was born in Kenya, and she was in the delivery room (you gotta love it! "I'll release it in a day or two..." - kinda like McClown knowing where Bin Ladin is, ..and I'll get him my friends!):
http://www.youtube.com/...
http://www.youtube.com/...
"I'll release it [the tape] in a day or two, affidavits from her talking to a certain person. I heard the tape. She was speaking [to someone] here in the United States."
UPDATE 2: In researching this entire citizenship and Presidency thing - I found a fascinating article at Salon which discusses a February 28, 2008 article in the NYT about McCain's own issues with birthplace. Some of you may be aware that there was some question about McCain's eligibility to run for President as well - because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone.
On Thursday, the New York Times took up the question of whether John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is even eligible for the presidency. The Constitution specifies that "no person except a natural born citizen ... shall be eligible to the office of President." This has been popularly (but never legally) interpreted as meaning that only those persons actually born in the United States were eligible. But McCain wasn't born here; he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, as his father, serving in the Navy, was stationed there at the time.
So - big deal? Well, the story has an interesting twist... I'll let you read about it yourself.