Orly Taitz Sanctioned for $20,000

The “Birther queen” has been slapped with a five-figure fine for “wasting the judicial resources” of the Middle District of Georgia, where she’d filed one of her numerous lawsuits demanding that President Obama prove his citizenship before deploying soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan. The judgment, which calls Taitz’s case and tactics “delusional”:

Counsel Orly Taitz is hereby ordered to pay $20,000.00 to the United States, through the Middle District of Georgia Clerk’s Office, within thirty days of the date of this Order as a sanction for her misconduct in violation of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

The entire document, and some key excerpts, after the jump.

Judge Clay Land makes the toughest statement about Taitz’s antics here:

The Court finds that counsel’s conduct was willful and not merely negligent.  It demonstrates bad faith on her part.  As an attorney, she is deemed to have known better.  She owed a duty to follow the rules and to respect the Court.  Counsel’s pattern of conduct conclusively establishes that she did not mistakenly violate a provision of law.  She knowingly violated Rule 11.  Her response to the Court’s show cause order is breathtaking in its arrogance and borders on delusional.  She expresses no contrition or regret regarding her misconduct.  To the contrary, she continues her baseless attacks on the Court.

And here’s the tick-tock of Taitz’s appearance in court:

Counsel’s frivolous and sanctionable conduct wasted the Defendants’ time and valuable judicial resources that could have been devoted to legitimate cases pending with the Court. When she filed the Rhodes case, counsel indicated that it was urgent that the matter be heard because her client was facing imminent deployment.  The Court rearranged its schedule, took time to read the legal papers, and conducted preliminary research in preparation for the hearing.  The Army had to activate its legal team on short notice, sending a Major from the Army Litigation Division in Washington, D.C. and a Captain from the CONUS Replacement Center at Ft. Benning.  In addition, the Assistant U.S. Attorney had to accompany them.  Like the Court, the government attorneys had to prepare in an expedited manner for the hearing.  During the week preceding Captain Rhodes’s deployment, the Court was in the midst of a jury trial.  Therefore, the Court had to alter the trial schedule to conduct the hearing during an extended lunch break, thus affecting other counsel and jurors.  The Clerk’s Office was burdened by Ms. Taitz’s inability to follow the Court’s rules regarding pro hac vice admission and the Court’s rules for electronic filing. On five separate occasions in a short period, the Clerk’s Office personnel error-noticed counsel for her failure to follow simple rules.  At the hearing, counsel failed to make coherent
legal arguments but instead wasted the Court’s time with press conference sound bites and speeches.