Judge dismisses birther challenge to Obama

OLYMPIA — A trial judge quickly rejected an effort to keep President Barack Obama off Washington’s general election ballot, saying such “birther” allegations have been around for years, and rejected for years as well.

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee dismissed the challenge brought Monday by Linda Jordan of Seattle, who tried to block Secretary of State Sam Reed from putting Obama on the ballot, in part because she challenged the validity of his birth certificate. Jordan claimed Obama wasn’t a “natural born citizen” as required by the U.S. Constitution.

McPhee devoted six pages of his opinion to dismantling Jordan’s claims based on findings in other courts that rejected similar challenges. “I do not usually devote so much time quoting the decisions of other courts in other cases. I do so here to make the point that just as all thhe so-called evidcence offered by (Jordan) has been in the blogosphere for years, in one form or another, so too has all the law rejecting plaintiff’s allegations. I can conceive of no reason why this lawsuit was brought, except to join the chorus of noise in that blogosphere.”