A Juneau man is still trying to get President Barack Obama to produce documents showing that he’s qualified to appear as a candidate on the November general election ballot. This time, he’s filed a lawsuit to force the state Division of Elections to produce the documents.
Gordon Warren Epperly earlier this year filed an objection with the Division because he believed that Obama, as a child of a mixed marriage, did not have the political right to hold federal office. Epperly says that the “purported” ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment only allowed for civil rights for those that he calls Negros or Mulattos. The Division turned down the challenge, saying that they do not have jurisdiction or governance over selection of national candidates.
Epperly is acting as his own attorney and has now filed suit in Juneau Superior Court in what may be the first claim of presidential eligibility ever litigated in Alaska. Epperly says Obama’s status as a citizen is unknown and he was unlawfully inaugurated as President of the United States. Epperly claims that, by assuming office, Obama has committed the crime of advocating the overthrow of the United States government. Epperly also questions the qualifications of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to run for federal office. Pelosi, Epperly believes, has no inherent right of birth as a citizen because she is a woman.
Epperly has sued Obama, Pelosi, Division of Elections director Gail Fenumiai and her supervisor, Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell.
Epperly wants the Division of Elections to evaluate Obama’s qualifications by specifically obtaining a physical “verified” copy of a vault birth certificate. If he is not qualified, then Epperly wants Obama to be investigated for advocating overthrow of the government.
The suit has already drawn a response from state attorneys. Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Bakalar filed a motion to dismiss on Friday, July 20th. Near the start of her pleading, Bakalar writes that the “Plaintiff’s statements regarding race, gender, citizenship, and criminal conduct are repugnant and absurd.”
Part of the filing includes a primer on the Lieutenant Governor’s duties, the selection process for national candidates, and Congress’ role in determining eligibility of a sitting president. But most of the rest of the sixteen pages includes Bakalar calling the lawsuit frivolous with no statement of facts other than “wholly discredited conspiracy theories regarding President Obama’s ineligibility to hold office.”
She also writes that Epperly has no standing, cannot show any personal harm to justify the lawsuit, and has prematurely filed the lawsuit. His filing, Bakalar writes, seems “incoherent and rambling.”
No court hearings have been scheduled in the case yet. Epperly may be given a chance to reply before Juneau Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg considers the state’s motion to dismiss.
