Judge dismisses lawsuit filed by Texas federal prison inmate claiming Obama is Kenyan

WHEELING - A lawsuit claiming U.S. President Barack Obama was born a citizen of Kenya has been dismissed from federal court because of the plaintiff's history of filing frivolous claims.

The West Virginia State Democratic Party was also named as a defendant in the suit filed by Keith Russell Judd, an inmate in a Texas federal prison.

On the day the complaint was filed, the clerk of the court sent the plaintiff a notice of deficient pleading, indicating that forms would be necessary, along with the court's form motion, to proceed in forma pauperis, which would allow the plaintiff to avoid paying costs and fees.

"However, because Judd is not entitled to proceed in forma pauperis... there is no need to wait receipt for those form," according to a report and recommendation filed on April 1 for U.S. Magistrate Judge James E. Seibert.

The plaintiff has had at least three non-habeas civil actions or appeals previously dismissed as frivolous or for failing to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, Seibert's report and recommendations says.

The civil actions filed by the plaintiff in the past were dismissed on the grounds that they were frivolous, malicious or failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.

"Therefore, based on the strikes the petitioner has accumulated, he may not file another complaint without prepayment of fees unless he is in 'imminent danger of serious physical injury,'" Seibert wrote.

"Plaintiff is seeking to have himself replaced as president. Clearly then, he makes no allegations that he is under imminent danger of serious physical injury."

Seibert recommended that the plaintiff's complaint be dismissed without prejudice.

On Oct. 21, a memorandum opinion and order affirming and adopting the report and recommendation of Seibert was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia at Wheeling.

In the memorandum opinion and order, U.S. District Judge Frederick P. Stamp Jr. stated that the court has reviewed the record in this case, as well as Seibert's report and recommendation. The report and recommendation was affirmed and adopted in its entirety.

Keith Russell Judd, who is an inmate in the Federal Correction Institution in Texarkana, Texas, claimed that Obama's long form birth certificate shows his father was a blood-born citizen of Kenya and under the law of Kenya, Obama was born a citizen of Kenya because his father was a citizen of Kenya by birth, according to a complaint filed March 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia at Wheeling.

Judd claimed the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act of 2011 states that a person born outside Kenya shall be a citizen by birth if on the date of birth that person's father was or is a citizen by birth.

"There is no doubt that Barack Obama was born a citizen of Kenya, East Africa, under jus sanguinis, where citizenship is determined by the fact that his father was a citizen of Kenya, East Africa, by birth, regardless of where Barack Obama was born," the complaint states.

Judd was seeking Obama to be removed as president and for Judd to replace him as president. He was representing himself.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia at Wheeling case number: 5:13-cv-00040