Berg v. Obama Update -- Friday, September 5

Obama, DNC Served Yesterday Afternoon

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was served with papers yesterday connected with the lawsuit filed more than two weeks ago in federal court in Philadelphia questioning his constitutional eligibility for the American presidency. Service was made at his Washington, D.C. Senate office at approximately 1:00 p.m.

From a press release provided by filing attorney Philip Berg and available on his Web site:

Philip J. Berg, Esquire, the Attorney who filed suit against Barack H. Obama challenging Senator Obama’s eligibility to serve as President of the United States, has received confirmation from his Process Service Company that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Senator Barack Obama were served today, September 4, 2008, with the legal documents pertaining to Berg vs. Obama, Civil Action No. 08-cv-4083.

The DNC was served at 12:00 p.m. and Senator Obama was served at 1:00 p.m. The U.S. Attorney’s Office accepted service on behalf of the Federal Elections Committee (FEC) on or about August 22, 2008.

A telephone call to Obama's Senate office in Washington, D.C. yielded no official comment, as his staffer maintained that she was "not familiar with any legal action" and, even though I mentioned that service was made in D.C. to that office, it was "probably a campaign-related issue."

The subsequent call to the senator's campaign headquarters, however, yielded the same result but in a more entertaining fashion.

"That's very interesting," said a campaign official who declined to provide a name and admitted that this was the first he had heard of Berg's lawsuit. He asked whether anything about the civil action had appeared in the newspapers, and when told that the story had appeared in the Washington Times, he laughed.

"Has the story appeared in the New York Times? How about the Washington Post? Or the Los Angeles Times? The Chicago Tribune?" he asked. "Those are all more trustworthy papers than the Washington Times. When the story appears there, then we might have something to say about it."

"If Sen. Obama were ineligible to run for president," he said, "I think we would have heard about it by now."

Berg, over the phone, mentioned that he has received phone calls and advice from dozens of lawyers across the country, and was currently working on preparing a motion for expedited discovery to be filed before the next conference with Judge Surrick. While he was unable to provide a copy of the affidavit of service--as soon as I get a copy, it will be posted here--he was more than happy to offer his perspective on the predictable response I received from Obama's senate office and campaign headquarters.

"They know about it," he said, noting that the story has catapulted across the Internet and radiowaves, citing 7.9 million hits on his Web site and mentioning that he is booked for a pair of radio interviews this evening, and will be sitting with a newspaper photographer for another story to appear in the [Norristown, PA] Times-Herald. "Too many times, a lawsuit can be filed and nobody knows about it. This time, the political people must know for sure."

"The silence is proving me right," he said, wondering why no doctor or nurse has come forward to claim the inevitable publicity which would accompany an admission that they were in attendance for the Illinois senator's birth. "I think it's an insult to the American public and even more so to his campaign supporters who have worked so hard and donated so much money. All they're doing is prolonging the agony. If I'm right and they stay quiet, they could sit on it for 60 days, get elected, and the only way out would be impeachment by this do-nothing Congress."

"What does that do for America?" He asked. "This deserves a comment one way or another."