+ All Categories
Home > Documents > HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

Date post: 30-May-2018
Category:
Upload: xx444
View: 217 times
Download: 0 times
Share this document with a friend

of 24

Transcript
  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    1/24

    No 09-5080

    Consolidating No. 09-5161

    IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

    FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

    GREGORY S. HOLLISTER, Case Below 08-2254 JR

    Appellant,

    v.

    Barry Soetoro, in his capacity as a natural

    person; de facto President in posse; and as

    de jure President in posse , also known as

    Barack Obama, et al.

    Appellees.

    =========

    APPELLANTS MOTION FOR AND

    STATEMENT SUPPORTING ORAL ARGUMENT=========

    John D.Hemenway D.C. Bar #379663Counsel for AppellantS

    4816 Rodman Street, NWWashington DC 20016(202) 628-4819

    [email protected]

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 1

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    2/24

    i

    TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

    CASES PAGE(S)

    Ex Parte Reynolds, 5 Dill. 394, 402 (1879) 8

    Figueroa-Ruiz v. Alegria, 905 F.2d 545, 549 (1st

    Cir.1990) 16

    Fletcher v. Evening Star Newspaper Co., 133 F.3d 395,

    395 (D.C.Cir..1942) 14

    Hilton Hotels Corporation v. Banov, 899 F.2d 40, 46 (D.C.Cir.1990) 15, 16

    Keith v. U.S., 8 Okla. 446, 58 P. 507 (1899) 8

    Linda R.S. v. Richard D., 410 U.S. at 617, 93 S.Ct.,

    at 1148, 35 L.Ed.2d, at 540 18

    *Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162, 167-68 (1874) 6, 8, 10

    Owens v. Republic of Sudan, 412 F.Supp.2d 99,

    117 (D.D.C.2006) 13, 14

    Renal Physicians Assn v. U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Servs.,489 F.3d 1267, 1273 (D.C.Cir.2007) 17

    Shanks v. Dupont, 28 U.S. 242, 245 (1830) 8

    Simon v. E. Ky. Welfare Rights Org., 426 U.S. 26, 41-42 (1976) 18

    *The Venus, 12 U.S. (8 Cranch.) 253, 289 (1814) 7

    United States v. Ward, 42 F. 320 (C.C.S.D.Cal.1890) 8

    U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) 8

    Veg-Mix, Inc. v. U.S. Dept. of Agric., 832 F.2d 601,

    607 (D.C.Cir. 1987) 14

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 2

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    3/24

    ii

    CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

    Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 5, 6, 8, 15

    14th

    Amendment 6, 8, 20

    STATUTES, RULES AND TREATISES

    28 U.S.C. 1335 (Interpleader Act) 11, 12, 13, 18

    *F.R.A.P. 34(a)(2) 1, 10, 11, 12

    *Fed.R.Civ. P. Rule 11 3, 4, 11, 16

    Fed.R.Civ. P. Rule 12(b)(6) 9, 11

    Fed.R.Civ. P. Rule 12 (b)(1) 17

    Vattel, The Law of Nations, bk. 1, ch. 19 212 8

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 3

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    4/24

    1

    IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALSFOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

    GREGORY S. HOLLISTER, et al. ) Case Below 08-2254 JRAppellants, )

    )v. ) No 09-5080

    ) Consolidating No. 09-5161BARRY SOETORO, et al. )

    Appellees. )

    MOTION FOR AND STATEMENT SUPPORTING ORAL ARGUMENT

    In its Order of June 26, 2009, the Court indicated its adoption of a

    briefing schedule and in doing so noted the following, namely that to the

    Court it was appearing that this case might be suitable for disposition

    without oral argument, (emphasis added). In so doing, the Court then

    requested that the parties consult Fed.R.App.P. 34(a)(2). Upon examining

    that rule as requested, appellants note that it states that oral argument must

    be allowed in every case unless a panel of three judges who have examined

    the briefs and record unanimously agrees that oral argument is unnecessary

    for any of three reasons that are then listed. (emphasis added).

    The heading of paragraph 34(a)(2) indicates that these three reasons

    are Standards. So the question of whether an oral argument will be

    denied in light of this positive admonition that oral argument must be

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 4

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    5/24

    2

    allowed in every case unless one of the three reasons can be

    unanimously found establishes that each of the three reasons is a

    standard and that, therefore, the actual facts of this case must be measured

    against each of the three reasons in turn until one is found against which the

    facts of this case can be measured and found wanting.

    Because in its Order of June 26 the Court stated: it appearing that

    this case might be suitable for disposition without oral argument, (emphasis

    added) the Court did not indicate anything more than an appear[ance] that

    this case might be suitable for such disposition. The Court did not say that

    the case was suitable for presentation without oral argument or that at that

    point, when the order was issued, such a possibility was more than an

    appear[ance]. Thus, it would seem that the type of thorough examination

    and analysis required for a panel unanimous opinion can not yet have yet

    been undertaken. This is particularly so when, as has now become the case,

    the entire matter has had to be briefed anew under a new schedule.

    Because of the intimation of this language of the rule as just discussed,

    and as we indicated would be done in the reply brief that was timely filed for

    the undersigned and for Colonel Hollister, and because, as we indicated in

    that reply brief, of the very substantial number of misrepresentations

    contained in the opposition brief of the appellees, which will now have to

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 5

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    6/24

    3

    redone, were too many to be all dealt with in that timely filed reply brief, we

    ask for oral argument unless there is a valid standard that dictates that it

    should not be allowed. This would require a unanimous panel consideration

    and decision. In addition, there is the fact that it is evident that the pattern of

    misrepresentation thus exhibited will continue. The appellants, both of them

    are, at this point, requesting in this motion that there be a full oral argument

    so that all questions about the misrepresentations can be adequately

    addressed. They do so because they maintain that none of the three reasons

    for not having an oral argument as set out above in the Rule obtains here.

    The first of the three reasons, paragraph (A), provides that the Court

    may omit oral argument if the appeal is frivolous. The use of the word

    frivolous would seem to echo the language that has been used for years in

    applying. Since the individual appeal of the undersigned in this case is

    centered around the trial judges levying (albeit greatly reduced from its

    original form) of a Rule 11 sanction, one of a reprimand, it would seem

    that the present appeal could hardly be frivolous in light of the fact that the

    judge below originally sought to impose upon the undersigned the full costs

    of the defense of the appellees to include counsel fees. Since we know from

    Federal Election Commission filings, of which this Court may take judicial

    notice, the fees to the appellees law firm now exceed one million and four

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 6

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    7/24

    4

    hundred thousand dollars ($1,400,000) of which the greater amount seem to

    be fees for defending cases about the eligibility for the presidency of the

    appellee Soetoro/Obama, Further, such a Rule 11 sanction would be

    ruinous to the average attorney, particularly one in solo practice. We can

    understand that the backing off by the judge below leading to his revised

    Rule 11 sanction was quite substantial. Yet, nonetheless, a Rule 11 sanction

    remains, as has been acknowledged by the appellees Soetoro a/k/a Obama

    and Biden in their filings heretofore.

    It seems to have been a withdrawal of an attempt by the lower court to

    ruin an attorney who had the temerity to bring such a suit. We say this

    because the sanction that was thus initially proposed by the lower court was

    clearly erroneous in several ways. Two of the most important of those errors

    were (A) that a Rule 11 sanction that is proposed by a judge clearly, under

    established law, cannot include such counsel fees and (B) it is hornbook law

    that such an award under Rule 11 entitles the attorney thus attacked to a

    hearing. While, in drawing back as he did, the judge below, clearly

    eliminated the violation of (A), he did not eliminate the violation of the

    hornbook law (B) and that cause for an appeal that is clearly not frivolous

    remains.

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 7

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    8/24

    5

    Further, many, many examinations of Rule 11 have considered and

    established what frivolity in legal filings consists of, They have focused

    upon what is known as pre-filing inquiry. Here the judge below did not

    even begin to inquire what pre-filing inquiry the undersigned or the plaintiff

    and appellant Colonel Gregory S. Hollister did or did not consist of. Instead

    of inquiring into, or allowing any presentation of, what the pre-filing inquiry

    in this case consisted of, the court below instead relied upon the following

    pronunciamiento:

    The issue of the Presidents citizenship was raised, vetted, blogged, texted, twittered, and otherwise massaged byAmericas vigilant citizenry during Mr. Obamas two-year-campaign for the presidency, but this plaintiff wants itresolved by a court. App. 218

    The question of citizenship was manifestly not what was at issue.

    Under the clear allegations of the complaint, as well as all of the filings of

    the plaintiffs/appellants below, what was at issue was whether the defendant

    Soetoro/Obama met one of the basic requirements imposed upon the person

    who wanted to legitimately qualify as the President. The Constitution in

    Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 states that the person who would seek that

    High Office be a natural born citizen. Clearly if what had been intended

    by the Founders was to require mere citizenship, they would have said so.

    Repeatedly in our history, particularly at the time of the enactment of the

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 8

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    9/24

    6

    14th

    Amendment, it has been made abundantly clear that citizenship is not

    the same as the specific constitutional requirement of being a natural born

    citizen. For a United States District Court judge to assert that it is the

    citizenship of Soetoro/Obama that is at issue is not only error; it would

    seem to indicate inattention to what has been pled and argued in the case.

    As we have pointed out in our reply brief, there is an occasion in

    which the meaning of the Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution

    was discussed as a coherent part of a lengthy discussion by the Supreme

    Court. That was in its 1874 decision in Minor v. Hapersett, 88 U.S. 162.

    The case was about suffrage and not about citizenship; the discussion of

    citizenship and of the phrase natural born citizen in Article II was by way

    of setting the scene for the discussion of suffrage which was what was

    directly at issue. In setting that background at the outset of the case then

    Chief Justice Waite, for a unanimous court, discussed the state of affairs of

    who was a citizen under the law prior to the adoption of the 14th Amendment.

    In that context the court discussed how additions might be made in those

    early days, speaking of there being two routes to becoming a U. S. Citizen,

    by birth and by naturalization. After mentioning the two routes, the court by

    way of illustrating how one becomes a citizen by birth, quoted the Article II,

    Section 1, Clause 5 phrase and in doing so, discussed the ways of being a

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 9

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    10/24

    7

    natural born citizen as known at the time of our founding. The court pointed

    out that at common law it was never doubted that all children born in a

    country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth,

    citizens also. These were natives, or natural born citizens The high

    court then went on to say that there were those who went further and

    include as citizens (but not as natural born citizens) children born

    within the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of their parents.

    The court then held that As to this class there have been doubts but never as

    to the first. It then declared that for purposes of that case it was not

    necessary to resolve the doubts, reaffirming that all children born of citizen

    parents [plural] within the jurisdiction [of the United States] are themselves

    citizens.

    In addition to that decision in 1874, there have been other Supreme

    Court decisions in which the question of the divided loyalty created by a

    childs having a parent, particularly the male parent, not be a citizen, have

    been discussed. In several of these cases the influence of the writer on

    international law, Vattel, as having been known to and an influence upon our

    Founders, was discussed. One of the most prominent of these was by no less

    a figure than John Marshall himself, writing in The Venus, 12 U.S. (8

    Cranch.) 253, 289 (1814). Perhaps the greatest figure in our early

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 10

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    11/24

    8

    jurisprudence made it abundantly clear that it was the opinions of Vattels

    1758 treatise that should be considered when reflecting on the intent of the

    constitutional framers such as what was meant by a phrase that they chose

    such as natural born citizen. Vattel, The Law of Nations, bk. 1, ch. 19

    212. Marshalls concurring opinion, in which he was joined by Justice

    Livingston, went on for several pages in distinguishing these considerations

    of Vattel from what later came to be erroneously pointed to by some as an

    influence upon the Founders coming from a different common law concept

    in which merely being born in a country conferred citizenship that could be

    distorted to be the natural born citizen status chosen by the Framers. For

    the importance of the natural born citizenship requirement in this regard in

    the 19th Century see also Shanks v. Dupont, 28 U.S. 242, 245 (1830), and, as

    we have previously pointed out Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162, 167-68

    (1874). And see also, where the significance of Vattel is also mentioned:Ex

    Parte Reynolds, 5 Dill. 394, 402 (1879) and United States v. Ward, 42 F.

    320 (C.C.S.D.Cal.1890). Also see Keith v. U.S., 8 Okla. 446, 58 P. 507

    (1899). To see clearly the distinction between citizenship derived from

    being born in the country and the phrase natural born citizen as used in

    Article II by the Framers, see the dissenting opinion of Chief Justice Fuller

    in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), which was only about being

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 11

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    12/24

    9

    naturally born into citizenship under the 14th

    Amendment and not about the

    Article II phrase natural born citizen. Chief Justice Fuller, in his dissent,

    emphasized that distinction as it was clearly understood in those days.

    In his Memorandum Order of March 24, 2009, the judge below, at p.

    4 states that he has no business addressing the merits, and states that he

    refuses to address them because he is dismissing the case under Rule 12(b)(6)

    for failure to state a claim. He does not state how a judge can find that a

    claim makes no case without deciding that the claim as presented make a

    case that has no merit. His heavy reliance upon blogging and twittering

    on the Internet having constituted a vet[ting] of the defendant Soetoro

    a/k/a Obama by Americas vigilant citizenry would seem to those familiar

    with the history of our founding like kowtowing to the kind of easily

    susceptible pure democracy that was the Founders inspiration for creating a

    constitutional republic. Indeed the refusal to face the paramount issue in the

    case would seem to be the very usurpation of the Constitution that George

    Washington warned about in his farewell address. One wonders what the

    vigilant citizenry, or at least those citizens who truly are vigilant think

    about judges who are sworn to uphold the Constitution and then assiduously

    avoid its enforcement.

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 12

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    13/24

    10

    The best cure for such avoidance would be, we submit, vigorous

    questioning by a panel at an oral argument. Far from being frivolous this

    appeal presents issues going to our very survival as a constitutional republic.

    They echo Ben Franklins reported concern at the close of the constitutional

    convention when he said to a woman on the street, We have given you a

    Republic, Madam, if you can keep it?

    In this regard an attempt to clarify the doubts set out by the Supreme

    Court in Minor, supra, is not frivolous by definition; it is an attempt to get

    clarified what the Supreme Court unanimously held to be in doubt and

    reserved to be decided on a later day. Therefore, a fortiori, an appeal from a

    decision in which a lower court refuses to allow such clarification based, not

    upon anything in the law, but rather upon blogging and twittering and

    vetting on the internet cannot itself be frivolous in any non-erroneous legal

    sense. We would implore the Court to examine what we have set out above

    and explain its position if is going to say that this appeal is frivolous as a

    reason for not having an oral argument.

    The above discussion of the 1874 decision also eliminates the

    withholding of oral argument in this case for the reason set out in

    subparagraph (B) of Rule 34 (a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Appellate

    Procedure. That reason is: the dispositive issue or issues have been

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 13

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    14/24

    11

    authoritatively decided. Clearly they have not been authoritatively decided

    in the context of the events of the presidential election of 2008. No other

    case involves the use of 28 U.S.C. 1335 (Interpleader) and no other case

    is one in which subject matter jurisdiction has been found in this context and

    the case decided and dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a

    claim.

    The lower court, echoing the defendants, recited other cases, including

    another case brought by the attorney Berg pro se but it made no actual

    analysis of actual issue or claim preclusion, not could it have under the

    circumstances. Thus that too was more evidence of bias and error than an

    actual legal analysis. It is self evident that blogging and twittering and

    vetting on the internet do not preclusion make. This has resulted in the

    Judge below being characterized across the conservative and

    constitutionalist internet (as opposed to the Soetoro/Obama, Soros financed

    astroturfing internet) as the blogging and twittering judge. We would

    suggest that to deny oral argument under these circumstances and certainly

    to do so without a unanimous panel decision based upon sound and rational

    and transparent analysis would not contribute to public respect for the

    neutrality of the courts but rather to the opposite conclusion.

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 14

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    15/24

    12

    This brings us to the third reason that a U. S. Court of Appeals may

    find under FRAP 34(a)(2)(C), which is: (C) the facts and legal arguments

    are adequately presented in the briefs and record, and the decisional process

    would not be significantly aided by oral argument. It is this reason to

    which we alluded in our timely filed reply brief.1 There we pointed out

    certain cases used by the appellees in their Opposition which badly

    misrepresented the law but stated that there was not sufficient room in the

    Reply to deal with many other such misrepresentations so that we would

    deal with them in this separate statement and motion.

    A particularly egregious example of such a misrepresentation in the

    appellees Opposition is the use of the case that appellees cite as the one

    they would have the Court put first in affirming the dismissal below. Here

    is what the appellees said, at Opp. p.20:

    First, in his Amended Complaint, Hollister dropped hisrule Interpleader claim. (See App. at 83-85). Hollisteracknowledges this point in his brief. See Br. at 8 (stating theallegations of proceeding under Rule 22 are in the record and

    but were then dropped out but they are in the record andshould have been considered.) Once Hollister amended his

    1

    We filed a reply brief timely after the Courts adoption of electronic filing and have stamped copiesproving that filing. This was after we filed a timely opening brief and an opposition was filed to that. Ourtimely filed reply brief was at first in the docket and then was withdrawn. We have now found out thereason and have been instructed how to rectify the situation. It was only after that that, unbeknownst to theundersigned, the attorney Joyce, having then recently been admitted to this Court under the sponsorship ofthe undersigned, filed what purported to be a reply brief for the plaintiff Colonel Hollister that theundersigned had not been advised of or given an opportunity as local counsel to review ahead of time. It isthis untimely filing that the Court has, by its Order setting a new briefing schedule, refused to accept. Sothe undersigned, in filing this motion, is keeping commitments made in the Reply brief which he timelyfiled and which has not been rejected and which will now be reinstated.

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 15

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    16/24

    13

    complaint, that claim had no legal effect, and the district wasnot obligated to address it. See, e.g., Owens v. Republic ofSudan, 412 F.Supp.2d 99, 117 (D.D.C.2006);

    This is, of course, a straight-out misrepresentation of the events in this

    case. Colonel Hollister moved to have his complaint amended, but that

    motion was never granted. Indeed it was never, so far as can be told,

    considered. See App. 118. And see Statement of Issues filed on 4/17/09

    [1176499] Issues nos. 3, 4 and 5. Had the proffered amended complaint

    been accepted there would have been no need to raise these issues in this

    appeal. Further, the actual proffered First Amended Complaint alleges in its

    very first numbered paragraph that is being brought pursuant to the

    Interpleader Act. See App. 66. So the proffered First Amended Complaint

    does not drop the allegation of violation of the Interpleader Act and to

    represent that it does is factually inaccurate.

    Even further, there is no indication in the opinion dismissing the case

    below (App. 219) that the Interpleader Act was not at issue and that opinion

    indicates clearly that the Interpleader Act claim is the only claim at issue and

    is the only claim that the court was considering.

    Because of this factual misrepresentation, the appellees misrepresent

    the law of the Owens case. That case, at the page referred to in the above-

    quoted passage, does refer to situations, unlike this case, where an amended

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 16

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    17/24

    14

    complaint has been accepted, where it clearly drops an earlier cause of

    action and is what is being ruled upon. It is a misrepresentation to assert that

    the Owens case represents law that applies to this case.

    Equally misrepresentative in a very similar vein is the use by the

    defendants/appellees in their Opposition of September 4, 2009, p. 28, of this

    courts decision in Veg-Mix, Inc. v. U.S. Dept. of Agric., 832 F.2d 601, 607

    (D.C.Cir. 1987) and tin turn to cite as further support for the same

    contention the decision inFletcher v. Evening Star Newspaper Co., 133 F.3d

    395, 395 (D.C.Cir..1942). In citing these two cases the defendants/appellees

    use them to seek to justify the references by the lower court to cases brought

    by Philip J. Bergpro se with the false assertion that they are cases between

    the same parties. Manifestly, Philip J. Berg is not Colonel Gregory S.

    Hollister and so to say that cases brought by Philip J. Berg pro se have the

    same parties as a case in which he is an attorney working for plaintiff

    Colonel Greg S. Hollister is simply false and a misrepresentation. Nor do

    the cases involve the same issues. Neither of the pro se cases brought by

    Philip J. Berg involves any use of interpleader. Neither do either of the

    other cases pose the question of an order from the defendant Biden being

    lawful as opposed to an order from the defendant Soetoro a/k/a Obama.

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 17

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    18/24

    15

    Similarly, the defendants/appellees made misrepresentations with

    regard to the assessment of the Rule 11 reprimand against the undersigned.

    They seek to justify the lower courts taking this step as an exercise of

    allowable discretion by the lower court and cite in support the decision by

    this Court in Hilton Hotels Corporation v. Banov, 899 F.2d 40, 46

    (D.C.Cir.1990). Opp. p. 25 The appellees cite this case for the proposition

    that the virtually untrammeled discretion allowed there is appropriate to

    the fact of [this] case. That is quite a misrepresentation. In that case the

    sanctions were approved upon motion of the defendant against the plaintiffs

    attorney because he never investigated prior to filing to see if the words that

    were the subject of the defamation claim made in the complaint had in fact

    been uttered. As we have seen, the fact here that the defendant Soetoro a/k/a

    Obamas father was Kenyan is not even denied. And that alone casts his

    status as a natural born citizen under Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 in

    doubt. Further as far as the evidence cited in the complaint that he was not

    born in Hawaii, to make this case comparable it would have to be the case

    that the plaintiff and his counsel, prior to filing, could have ferreted out the

    actual long form birth certificate of Soetoro a/k/a Obama. Since he has

    expended hundreds of thousands of dollars keeping anyone from seeing it

    and has refused to reveal it, this is not a comparable dilatation at all to that in

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 18

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    19/24

    16

    Banov. In fact, as we have pointed out, here the lower court made

    absolutely no inquiry into what the pre-filing inquiry was or was not. And it

    had no hearing and in failing to do so, as we have pointed out, violated the

    hornbook requirement where, as here, it had had absolutely no opportunity

    to assess the demeanor of the undersigned and what the undersigned had or

    had not done as he could have been brought out at a hearing in looking into

    such matters as the failure to produce an actual birth certificate while falsely

    claiming to have done so.

    In addition the defendants/appellants also cite Figueroa-Ruiz v.

    Alegria, 905 F.2d 545, 549 (1st Cir.1990) for the proposition that as an

    alternative to monetary sanctions, district courts may admonish or reprimand

    attorneys who violate Rule 11 where such a course is appropriate. The

    misrepresentation with this was that in the Figueroa-Ruiz case the lower

    court had not done that. In fact that was one of four possible routes the court

    of appeals in that case pointed out the lower court could have taken when in

    fact, as in this case, the lower court failed to properly investigate and analyze

    Rule 11 at all. If anything, that case indicates why any Rule 11 sanction was

    error here. Here the Rule 11 assessment was an exercise in name-calling

    dictated by the lower courts expressed bias toward Berg and Joyce which it

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 19

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    20/24

    17

    decided to exercise upon the undersigned with no authority to support such a

    transposition or transference of bias.

    Even though the finding of the lower court here that there was subject

    matter jurisdiction and, hence, necessarily standing, and even though the

    defendants Soetoro a/k/a Obama and Biden sought dismissal for lack of

    standing under Rule 12 (b) (1) and failed, they did not appeal that decision

    against them. So, at this point standing is not an issue that has been placed

    before this Court. Nonetheless, undeterred, the defendants/appellees argued

    it in their now superseded Opposition. And in doing so, as we might expect,

    they engaged in misrepresentation. The most obvious example of this is

    their use of cases involving advocacy groups rather than individual plaintiffs.

    These advocacy groups do not have the standing that an individual plaintiff

    might have. The defendants/appellees couple that with further

    misrepresentations. For example they cite the case of Renal Physicians

    Assn v. U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Servs., 489 F.3d 1267, 1273

    (D.C.Cir.2007) for the proposition that the standard of review of standing is

    de novo. But that was where it was specifically appealed that there was no

    standing. Here standing was found and that finding was not appealed by the

    defendants/appellees. So they chose not to put the issue before the Court.

    They further misrepresent that cases where there is no specific statutory

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 20

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    21/24

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    22/24

    19

    Biden is obliged to obey the Constitution and give the order. There is not

    another party that need be involved.

    In fact it can be accurately said that the defendants/appellees have

    followed a pattern of throwing a large number of misrepresentations out in

    the hopes that there will be so many that we will be overwhelmed to the

    point of not being able to respond to them all. It is for that reason that we

    believe that the Court must grant oral argument so that we can respond to

    any such misrepresentation that any member of the panel has a question

    about. Many of the misrepresentations are quite obvious once the case cited

    is read but there are so many that it will not likely be possible to counter

    them all in a reply brief.

    Finally, there are factual misrepresentations consisting of gratuitous

    slurs against the plaintiff, Colonel Gregory S. Hollister. In their opening

    Opposition brief, for example, at p.2, there is such a reference where the

    defendants/appellees Soetoro a/k/a Obama and Biden refer to the plaintiff as

    an alleged Colonel who is retired and a member of the Individual Ready

    Reserve. Yet these facts are clearly established as such by the DOD Form

    214 which is the attachment to the complaint. App. 30-31 Thus this is the

    sort of snide misrepresentation that also cries out for oral argument. In fact

    the entire assault of these appellees, like much of their activity on the

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 22

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    23/24

    20

    Internet and through the media that are subservient to them, consists of name

    calling and ridicule, as if taking the Constitution and the oath to uphold and

    protect it were frivolous just because these appellees have their counsel call

    the charges made here by that and similar adjectives. Colonel Hollister

    wishes it emphasizes that his concern, far from being frivolous or absurd, is

    evidenced by his entire record of service to his country. As has been pointed

    out, his concern over the Constitution being upheld was sufficiently serious

    during his active duty when William Jefferson Clinton was President that it

    is a matter of public record that he wrote to then Secretary of Defense Perry

    about concerns he had about the applicability of Section 3 of the 14th

    Amendment to events then in progress. These misrepresentative tactics are

    best encountered by oral argument and indeed that is one of the primary

    purposes of having such argument, so that questions that may be created by

    such tactics can be answered and false impressions corrected.

    Respectfully submitted,

    /s/

    John D. Hemenway D.C. Bar No. 379663Counsel for Appellants4816 Rodman Street, NWWashington DC 20016(202) 628-4819

    [email protected]

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 23

  • 8/14/2019 HOLLISTER v SOETORO - JOINT MOTION - To Schedule Oral Argument

    24/24

    CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

    I HEREBY CERTIFY that I have caused the foregoing to be servedelectronically upon counsel of record this1st day of December, 2009.

    /s/

    __________________________

    John D. Hemenway

    Case: 09-5080 Document: 1218455 Filed: 12/01/2009 Page: 24


Recommended