Alaska Birther Launches 鈥楽overeign鈥� Attack on 鈥楳ulatto鈥� Obama
An Alaska man who is challenging President Barack Obama鈥檚 eligibility for office on the grounds that the president is a 鈥渕ulatto鈥� based his complaint on an argument common to the neo-Confederate and antigovernment 鈥渟overeign citizen鈥� movements, Hatewatch has learned.
In a complaint filed Tuesday with the Alaska Division of Elections, Gordon Warren Epperly of Juneau argued that Obama isn鈥檛 eligible for office because, as a person of mixed-race descent, he is not a 鈥渘atural-born citizen鈥� of the United States.
鈥淎s Barack Hussein Obama II is of the 鈥楳ulatto鈥� race, his status of citizenship is founded upon the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Before the (purported) ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, the race of 鈥楴egro鈥� or 鈥楳ulatto鈥� had no standing to be citizens of the United States under the United States Constitution,鈥� the complaint says. 鈥淎s the Fourteenth Amendment is only a grant of 鈥楥ivil Rights鈥� and not a grant of 鈥楶olitical Rights,鈥� Barack Hussein Obama II does not have any 鈥楶olitical Rights鈥� under any provision of the United States Constitution to hold any Public Office of the United States government.鈥�
Though this appears to be the first time it has been used in an effort to challenge Obama鈥檚 citizenship status, Epperly鈥檚 argument is not unique. Indeed, it seems to be an amalgam of two bizarre extremist legal theories 鈥� one that says that blacks do not have the same legal rights as whites because their citizenship is founded on the 14th Amendment, and another that claims that in order to be a 鈥渘atural-born鈥� U.S. citizen, one鈥檚 parents must both be U.S. citizens as well.
The latter theory most recently made its appearance in a Georgia court, where attorneys Mark Hatfield and Van Irion unsuccessfully that since the president鈥檚 father was never a U.S. citizen, Obama not a natural-born citizen and is constitutionally ineligible for political office. Van Irion is affiliated with the Southern Legal Resource Center, a neo-Confederate outfit co-founded by white supremacist attorney , who was married at the Aryan Nations compound in a ceremony officiated by the late Aryan Nations leader and preacher .
The 14th Amendment component of Epperly鈥檚 challenge stems from an idea promulgated by the Posse Comitatus, a racist and anti-Semitic group that roiled the Midwest in the 1970s and 1980s and believed that the county sheriff is the highest legitimate law enforcement authority. Posse ideologues argued, in effect, that God gave America to the white man and therefore the government cannot abridge most rights of whites unless they submit to a 鈥渃ontract鈥� with that government. Black people were only made citizens by the 14th Amendment, they argued, meaning that they have permanently contracted with the government and therefore must obey all its dictates. Or, put another way, black people were truly second-class citizens, forced to obey government and tax laws that, the Posse argued, don't apply to white sovereign citizens (the Posse often called them 鈥渙rganic citizens鈥�).
Epperly appears to have been comingling sovereign and neo-Confederate ideology some time. In 2006, he sued Congress for unconstitutionally enacting the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, which, he alleged, placed him 鈥渋n a state of involuntary servitude鈥� and made him 鈥渓iable for the debt of the United States.鈥�
The Reconstruction Acts, enacted in the wake of the Civil War, placed the former Confederate States under military rule, and required them to draft new constitutions and ratify the 14th Amendment. Some neo-Confederate sympathizers argue that the 14th Amendment was not properly ratified because its ratification involved strong-arm tactics. Sovereign ideology 鈥� a form of which has 鈥� says whites can reject the 14th Amendment and proclaim themselves independent, free from what they perceive as an overweening and downright criminal federal government.
The modern-day sovereign citizen movement, whose adherents believe they are exempt from most laws and are often confrontational with police officers, is a direct descendant of Posse Comitatus. Most modern sovereigns, however, seem unaware of the movement鈥檚 racist origins 鈥� and in recent years a permutation of sovereign ideology has .
Amazingly enough, this is not the first time Epperly has challenged the eligibility of an elected official he does not like. In a 2010 letter to the Alaska director of elections, he declared that Lisa Murkowski, who had just been elected senator, was not qualified for office 鈥渁s she is not a citizen of the United States under Article I of the Constitution for the United States.鈥�
His argument stemmed from a 22-page 鈥淧roclamation,鈥� apparently researched solely by Epperly, which supposedly proves that female and non-white elected officials are 鈥渦surpers of office鈥� who 鈥渉ave no political privileges to hold public offices of the United States under the qualification clauses of Article I, Article, II, and Article III of the United States Constitution.鈥�
In the same proclamation, Epperly concluded also that Obama is a 鈥渦surper,鈥� and that the president, Murkowski and all other non-whites and women who hold government office were 鈥渋nserted鈥� into their positions by seditious 鈥渄omestic enemies鈥� intent on infiltrating and destroying the United States under cover of 鈥減olitical correctness.鈥�
Epperly ends with a barely veiled threat. Demanding that Congress and the Supreme Court 鈥渃ome forward and give answers to the allegations of sedition as stated herein,鈥� he wrote: 鈥淚f those who are participating in the sedition of the Constitution of the United States of America do not remove themselves from public office, the people will have no choice but to remove those individuals from office by what ever means it may take.鈥�
