Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Birthers Sue Democratic National Committee

PHOENIX (CN) - A Tennessee group filed a federal class action against the Democratic National Committee, demanding an injunction restraining it from claiming that President Barack Obama is qualified to hold his office.

The lawsuit was filed by its lead plaintiff, the Liberty Legal Foundation, of Knoxville, Tenn.

"A Letter From Founder Van Irion" on the group's home page states: "Liberty Legal Foundation is dedicated to restoring Constitutional limits on government by overturning flawed legal precedent. We work towards this goal by filing lawsuits that challenge key legal precedent that is unconstitutional."

The letter says the group has filed class actions challenging the constitutionality of the "completely onerous" Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and another one in support of Arizona's immigration law.

In its "Immigration Class Action," the group says that the Obama administration cannot claim that Arizona law is pre-empted by federal law, because "pre-emption begins with the presumption that federal law is being enforced," which the foundation claims is not the case, in Arizona.

In its birther lawsuit, the group claims that President Obama "has admitted that his father was not a U.S. Citizen, and because this fact has been confirmed by the U.S. State Department, any reasonable person with knowledge of these facts would doubt Mr. Obama's Constitutional qualifications."

The complaint states: "This Complaint does not request or require this Court to find that President Obama is not qualified to hold the office of President of the United States. Instead, this complaint is directed toward defining the term 'natural-born citizen' under the Constitution of the United States, and toward negligence or intentional misrepresentations of the Democratic Party. This Complaint requests this Court to affirm the Supreme Court's definition of 'natural-born citizen' as 'all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens.' See Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1875)."

They seek a permanent injunction to stop defendants from "issuing any letters, certificates, or other document to any Secretary of State of any state, any agent thereof, or any other official of any state, indicating that Mr. Obama is qualified to hold the office of President or that the Democratic Party has selected Mr. Obama as its Presidential candidate, or requesting that any state place the name of Mr. Obama on any ballot for the office of President of the United States for the 2012 general election."

They are represented by Van Irion.

Follow @jamierossCNS
Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...