In a case in which Orly Taitz is trying to prove that President Barack Obama has used other people's Social Security numbers, Taitz may prove to be the biggest threat of all.
A judge in U.S. District Court said that Taitz is either playing games or stupid. Either way, it figures that the Rancho Santa Margarita lawyer and Mission Viejo dentist is walking a fine line after failing to follow the federal rules of civil procedure that mandate all digits but the last four of Social Security numbers be redacted in court documents.
"Plaintiff is either toying with the court or displaying her own stupidity," wrote Judge Royce C. Lamberth on Monday in a case in which Taitz is attempting to acquire information from the Social Secrurity Administration that is confidential.
Lamberth also said that Taitz made "the somewhat hysterical claim" that "there may be 'an employee of the court, who is intentionally sabotaging' her." Lamberth also accused Taitz of engaging the courtroom's deputy clerk "in a lengthy, accusatory conversation."
It's the fallout of a series of court filings in which Taitz failed to follow the rules either by her own hand or her misunderstanding.
However, earlier in the case of Taitz v. Michael Astrue, commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Taitz got it right.
It all began June 2 when Taitz was told to refile her complaint with Social Security numbers redacted so that only the last four digits were visible. On June 14, Taitz filed her complaint with the numbers correctly redacted.
A month later, on July 15, Taitz filed her opposition to the defendant's summary judgment motion but failed to delete all but the last four digits of the Social Security numbers included.
On July 21, Taitz told the clerk that she realized her error and had sent over a redacted version of the filing, but included in the attached explanation that the new copy "redacted the last four digits of the SSN in question ...."
After accusing a court employee of trying to sabotage her, Taitz on July 22 sent to the court via e-mail another version of the filing, again with the last four digits redacted instead of the other way around.
On July 25, the day that Lamberth chastised Taitz, the court received another version of the filing with improper redactions.
"Morevoer," Lamberth wrote, "wasting the court's time with this nonsense is not the way for plaintiff to have any hope of prevailing in this case."
It's not the first time that Taitz—one of the major players in the birther movement against Obama—has been called out by a judge.
In 2009 while she was trying to prove that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and therefore not eligible to be president, she was fined $20,000 by the court. Wrote Judge Clay D. Land of one of Taitz's responses to the court: "(It) is breathtaking in its arrogance and borders on delusional. She expresses no contrition or regret regarding her conduct."
