A California lawyer who earlier this week failed to convince the State Objections Board to keep President Barack Obama’s name off the Kansas general election ballot filed suit Thursday in Shawnee County seeking an emergency stay of the board’s action.
Orly Taitz, who wasn’t allowed to speak to the State Objections Board on Monday when it officially placed Obama on the November ballot, said her suit was filed on the behalf of a client she identified only as “Mr. Walters, a citizen of Kansas.”
In a statement on her website, Taitz said the suit filed Thursday afternoon, which names Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as the defendant, would challenge the board’s decision on what she called “overwhelming evidence of the elections fraud by Mr. Obama.”
Taitz claims the president has engaged in identity fraud in the use of forged identification papers, including a Connecticut Social Security number not issued to him, and is using a last name that isn’t legally his.
“Plaintiffs are seeking an emergency preliminary injunction keeping Mr. Obama off the general election ballot until the original identification papers are finally produced and examined by experts,” Taitz said in a statement.
A hearing was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Oct. 3 before Shawnee County District Court Judge Larry Hendricks, Taitz said.
In an interview with The Topeka Capital-Journal, Taitz said she came to Topeka on Monday after learning of the challenge to Obama’s candidacy filed by a Manhattan man, Joe Montgomery, who claimed the president wasn’t a natural-born citizen.
The State Objections Board — comprised of Kobach, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, all Republicans — heard Montgomery’s concern in a Sept. 13 meeting, after which it announced it wouldn’t certify Obama’s place on the Kansas ballot until examining birth certificate information from Hawaii.
Montgomery a day later asked for his objection to be withdrawn, saying he faced “intimidation directed not only at me, but at people around me.”
In a short hearing Monday, Kobach said the objections board had examined documents from Hawaii and found no reason not to put Obama’s name on the ballot.
Taitz asked to speak before the board but was denied the opportunity. She claimed Kobach and the board erred in allowing Montgomery to withdraw his complaint.
“The evidence was not heard by the secretary of state,” she said in a telephone interview Thursday.
“The plaintiff, Mr. Joseph Montgomery, has stated he was intimidated, he was harassed. In legal terms, what happened to him is duress,” Taitz said. “If he withdraws under duress, and this was a clear case of duress, his withdrawal is not valid. The secretary of state made a clear mistake in not recognizing he was under duress.”
Taitz attempted to present her argument to media gathered outside the hearing room at the Statehouse. She was ordered to leave by security officers after she became involved in a heated argument with another man. The verbal confrontation continued outside on the Statehouse grounds.
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