Law
professor Andy Martin has filed a second "birther"
lawsuit in the Hawai'i courts,
seeking to expose wholesale violations of Hawai'i
law by the Hawai'i governor and
attorney general. Martin says efforts by Hawai'i
officials to impose secrecy on Barack Obama's birth records have
boomeranged
and fed speculation that Obama was not born in Hawai'i.
Martin is asking Hawai'i judges
to open all of Barack Obama's Hawai'i
records to public inspection as de facto
historical archives of the United States.
Martin has written the definitive book on Obama, as well as producing
the first
movie on Obama's years in Hawai'i.
Martin's lawsuit was assigned to Circuit Judge Rom Trader. Martin will
hold a Honolulu
news conference Wednesday to discuss his lawsuit.
ANDY
MARTIN, J.D.
Post
Office Box 1851
New
York, NY10150-1851
Toll-free
tel. (866)
706-2639
Toll-free
fax (866) 707-2639
Temporary
Hawai'i
tel.
(917) 664-9329
Plaintiff
pro se
CIRCUIT
COURT OF THE
FIRST CIRCUIT
STATE
OF HAWAII
CIVIL
NUMBER:
10-1-969-05 RAT
(Declaratory
Judgment)
COMPLAINT
FOR
DECLARATORY
JUDGMENT;
EXHIBITS
1-5: SUMMONS
ANDY
MARTIN, J.D.,
Plaintiff,
vs.
MARK
J. BENNETT, in
his
official
capacity as
Attorney
General
of
the State of Hawai'i,
LINDA
LINGLE, in her
official
capacity as
Governor
of
the State of Hawai'i,
Defendants.
_________________________________
COMPLAINT
FOR DECLARATORY JUDGMENT
Plaintiff
ANDY MARTIN, J.D., ("Plaintiff"), pro se, alleges in this
Complaint for
Declaratory Judgment against the Defendants as follows:
COUNT
ONE
I.
PARTIES,
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
1.
Plaintiff ANDY MARTIN is the author of the definitive
book on President Barack Obama ("Obama"), "Obama: The Man Behind The
Mask." Plaintiff
is also the producer/director of the first film concerning Obama's
Hawai'i
years, "Obama: The Hawai'i Years." He has also been writing columns and
commentary about the president for nearly six (6) years and he is
currently
planning a second book on President Obama. Plaintiff holds a Juris
Doctor degree from the University
of Illinois College of Law.
2.
Defendants MARK J. BENNETT ("Bennett") and LINDA LINGLE
("Lingle") are the Hawai'i Attorney
General and Governor respectively. Governor Lingle supervises and
controls the
actions of the executive department and in particular supervises Dr.
Chiyome
Fukino who is the Director of the Hawai'i Department of Health.
3.
This Complaint for Declaratory Relief and these
proceedings are instituted pursuant to §
632-1, Hawai'i Revised Statutes.
4.
Venue is proper in this Court pursuant to § 603-36,
Hawaii Revised
Statutes.
5. The defendants are sued in their official capacities for the reasons
set
forth in the exhibits accompanying and attached to this Complaint.
II.
FACTUAL
ALLEGATIONS
1.
Plaintiff submitted a Uniform Information Practices Act
("UIPA") request to the defendants on or about November 2, 2008. A copy
of said request is attached as Exhibit
1.
2.
Plaintiff further submitted a supplemental request to
Lingle
on April 3, 2009, a copy of which is attached as Exhibit 2.
3.
Defendants responded nearly seven (7) months later with a
virtually blanket refusal to disclose any of their own internal
communications.
The UIPA materials for which defendants charged Plaintiff $600 were
virtually
worthless and made a mockery of the liberal UIPA principles applicable
under
both the UIPA statute and the decisions of the Hawai'i
courts interpreting the UIPA. A copy of defendants' response is
attached as
Exhibit 3.
4.
Plaintiff wrote to the defendants on April 14, 2010; defendants have
not responded. A
copy of Plaintiff's request is attached as Exhibit 4. In a final effort
to avoid
a lawsuit Plaintiff wrote to the defendants on April 30, 2010, attached
as Exhibit 5; again defendants
have not responded.
5.
There is great public confusion and national concern
involving the issue of Obama's birth in this state. Ironically, the
secrecy and
manipulation of the defendants, and their refusal to make Hawai'i
state records available to plaintiff, have fueled intense speculation
that
Obama was not born in Hawai'i
and may have been born in Kenya.
Plaintiff himself has always stated Obama was born in Hawai'i,
which is why he is suing to obtain Obama's Hawai'i
birth and other public records here; nevertheless, tens of millions of
Americans believe Obama was born in Kenya
due to the secrecy and manipulation of Hawai'i
state records by the defendants.
6.
Unless and until Hawai'i
executive branch officials and judges stop stonewalling and concealing
historical
Hawaiian archives concerning Obama, public speculation will continue to
grow
about the nature and extent of Obama's origins in this state. The
defendants'
secrecy and manipulation of public records have boomeranged: instead of
quieting public concerns since 2008 and laying to rest questions about
Obama's "roots,"
approximately 150 million Americans now harbor doubts in
2010 about the
whereabouts and circumstances of Obama's birth.
7.
American media have coined the term "Birthers" to refer
to the approximately 150 million Americans who harbor
doubts
about the circumstances of Obama's birth. Plaintiff refers to these
tens of
millions of concerned Americans collectively as "Birther Nation."
III.
LEGAL
CLAIM
1.
In the past, Hawai'i
courts have interpreted the UIPA liberally.
2.
The defendants' current claim that any internal
communications of Hawai'i executive
branch officials involving Obama's records are exempt from UIPA
disclosure would
gut the UIPA and make the statute worthless.
3.
The refusal of the defendants to comply with the UIPA is
part of an egregious (and misguided) partisan political manipulation of
the
Obama archives by the defendants. Defendants, using Fukino as their
mouthpiece,
have disseminated repeated statements and remarks about the contents of
Obama's
state files; when challenged to produce the original documents to which
they were
referring the defendants responded with claims of secrecy.
4.
The defendants have waived any secrecy of state records
concerning Obama by Fukino's repeated and continuing public discussions
of the
Obama files and by their constant and continuing efforts to obtain
local and
national publicity for their claims.
IV.
DECLARATORY
RELIEF SOUGHT
Plaintiff
seeks to have the defendants fully comply with the
UIPA in good faith, and to provide all of their internal communications
which
they have refused to provide to Plaintiff for 1-1/2 years.
COUNT
TWO
I.
PARTIES,
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
1.
Plaintiff repeats and realleges Paragraph One of Count
One (¶ I).
II.
FACTUAL
ALLEGATIONS
1.
Plaintiff repeats and realleges Paragraph Two of Count
One (¶ II).
III.
LEGAL
CLAIM
1.
Barack Obama is President of the United States. He is not by any
stretch of the
imagination a private citizen to whom normal privacy concerns are
applicable. State
and federal privacy statutes applicable to ordinary private citizens
were never
intended to impose a veil of secrecy over historical archives and
records
concerning the President of the United States.
2.
Hawai'i
state files, records and other local sources of information constitute
historical archives both of this state and the United States to which
privacy statutes and privacy
concerns are either completely inapplicable or almost fully attenuated.
Obama
himself has stated he has released his "birth certificate;" therefore
he has
affirmatively waived any secrecy or privacy concerning the original,
typewritten
1961 birth certificate.
3.
Defendants cannot be allowed to play games and seek to
advance a partisan political agenda concerning Obama by making public
claims
about state documents and records which they then refuse to make
available for
public inspection and copying.
IV.
DECLARATORY
RELIEF SOUGHT
1.
Plaintiff seeks declaratory and injunctive relief
declaring that Obama's original, typewritten 1961 birth certificate is
a state
and national historical record and archive which should be made
available to
the American people and to writers, journalists, scholars and
researchers. This
finding should also be applicable to any and all Hawai'i
state and local government records concerning Obama wherever located
including,
but not limited to, his school and other records.
WHEREFORE,
Plaintiff Andy Martin prays for relief as
follows:
1.
For a declaration by this Court that the attached record
reflects defendants have failed to comply with the UIPA in good faith,
and that
Plaintiff as an author and writer and cinéaste is a person
to whom the requested UIPA materials
should be made available forthwith;
2.
That because Obama is the President of the United States, he is not a
"private citizen" to
whom normal privacy considerations are applicable. Any Hawai'i
state records or other medical and school records constitute historical
archives of this state and the United States
and should be made available to writers, journalists, historians and
scholars
such as Plaintiff.
3.
For such other relief as this Court deems just and
equitable.
Dated:
May 4, 2010
Honolulu,
Hawai'i
Respectfully
submitted,
ANDY
MARTIN, J.D.
Plaintiff
Pro se
