Judge Michael M. Malihi, deputy chief judge for the Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings, wrote in a 10-page order that he found “little, if any, probative value” of testimony by witnesses who argued that Obama had faked his identity through forged birth certificates or a fraudulently obtained Social Security number.

Malihi also criticized Obama’s attorney, Michael K. Jablonski, for skipping a Jan. 26 hearing on the matter.

“By deciding this matter on the merits, the Court in no way condones the conduct or legal scholarship of Defendant’s attorney, Mr. Jablonski,” Malihi wrote. “This Decision is entirely based on the law, as well as evidence and legal arguments presented at the hearing.”

Jablonski couldn’t be reached immediately to comment after Malihi’s decision was released late Friday afternoon.

Malihi’s findings will be sent to Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican who has final authority to decide Obama’s ballot eligibility.

Malihi said that Obama met the constitutional requirement that presidential candidates be “natural born citizens” because he was born in the United States.

The judge relied on a 2009 Indiana Court of Appeals analysis in Arkeny v. Governor, 916 N.E.2d 678, of many of the same arguments, including that Obama didn’t qualify as “natural born” because only one of his parents was a U.S. citizen. Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Kansas, and his father, Barack Obama Sr., was born in Kenya, which plaintiffs say made him a British citizen.

“Parents born within the borders of the United States are ‘natural born citizens’ for Article II, Section I purposes, regardless of the citizenship of their parents,” according to Malihi’s citation of Arkeny.

Malihi said witnesses who questioned Obama’s credentials weren’t qualified or tendered as experts on birth records, forged documents or document manipulation.

“For the purposes of this analysis, this Court considered that President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Therefore, as discussed in Arkeny, he became a citizen at birth and is a natural born citizen,” Malihi wrote.

Obama was born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961, according to birth documents released by his campaign and newspaper birth notices published at the time.

Carley’s resignation letter, delivered to Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday, urged Deal to have an appointee ready to be sworn in “immediately” after his resignation—promising the governor he would have his office cleaned out. Judicial Nominating Commission Co-Chair Pete Robinson of Troutman Sanders Strategies said Friday that the JNC would put out a formal call for nominations in April, with an eye to giving Deal a short list of candidates in early June.

Carley’s letter explained that he selected the precise date of July 17 because that’s the day after the deadline for resolving all of the court’s January term cases. Carley also requested that he be appointed a senior judge so that he can vote on motions for reconsideration filed after his retirement date in cases in which he had participated as an active justice.  Carley said he also hopes to serve as a designated judge in other courts during his retirement. In a Wednesday letter to Carley accepting his resignation, Deal said he would grant Carley senior appellate court judge status effective July 18.

Carley had at one point said that he planned to serve out his six-year term that ends at the close of 2012, thereby creating an open seat to be filled by election. But last fall he announced that he would leave the court early so that he could serve a two-month term as chief justice that would coincide with this year’s State Bar meeting—scheduled for May 31 through June 3 in Savannah and retire as the court’s chief.

Former Talbotton Police Chief Michael Howard, 43, admitted during his plea hearing that last year he lied to a federal agent when he denied knowing that a known drug dealer had transported narcotics through Talbot County, according to Michael J. Moore, U.S. Attorney for Georgia’s Middle District.

According to federal prosecutors, an informant had told Howard that he had $15,000 and that he would be traveling through Talbot County in connection with a planned drug deal. The informant also asked Howard if he would be interested in assisting him by providing the informant with protection until the deal was consummated, prosecutors said.  Howard apparently expressed an interest in the FBI informant’s offer but ultimately turned it down, telling the informant that he was off duty and not wearing his uniform and so could not be of any assistance in running interference for him, federal prosecutors said.

Howard faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine as high as $250,000. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 25.

Said Moore in a statement:  “No one is above the law. The public trust that those who wear the badge uphold is sacred, and violations of that trust are inexcusable and will be prosecuted.”

Howard’s indictment is part of a larger federal corruption investigation of Talbot and Taylor County law enforcement officers that has so far resulted in five indictments.  The federal investigation figured in an ethics investigation last summer of former Chattahoochee Superior Court Judge Douglas Pullen by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission.

During the JQC investigation, which ended with Pullen’s resignation last August, Appalachian Circuit District Attorney Joe  Hendricks – appointed by the state attorney general as a special prosecutor to investigate whether criminal charges associated with  the JQC investigation of Pullen might be warranted— told the Daily Report that he was investigating allegations that a judge in the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit—whom he would not name —  may have tipped off law enforcement officers who were possible suspects in the FBI’s investigation in Talbot County.  “I’m investigating the allegation that tipping off was being done by a member of the juduiciary,” he said.

Pullen did not return calls to the Daily Report at the time, although he told the Columbus Ledger-Enqujirer,  ”I haven’t tipped off anybody to anything.” But he said the FBI probe that had already led to the arrest of several Talbot County law enforcement officers  was “common knowledge not only in Talbot County, but in every county in the circuit.” Pullen was never charged with any criminal activity in conjunction with the JQC investigation.

In a letter dated Feb. 1, Johnson, a DeKalb County Democrat, said that the DOJ’s current plan to consolidate the  Antitrust Division’s offices in other cities – including Chicago, San Francisco and Washington – “wastes money.” He suggests, instead, that Antitrust staff and cases be consolidated  in  Atlanta “if the Department intends to maintain enforcement levels and save costs through consolidation.”

Johnson said that not only would Atlanta be a less expensive venue than other cities that will maintain antitrust offices, but it is “critical” because Atlanta is an international business hub—“the Capital of the South and the gateway to the world” with an antitrust bar “well-recognized by lawyers and jurists throughout the United States and the globe.”

Johnson dismissed the DOJ’s prediction that it would save $8  million from an anticipated 50 percent attrition rate for employees at offices slated to close who decline a transfer to one of the other cities.

“In the alternative, the Department may be left shorthanded – and have to wait for the end of hiring freezes to replace departing staff with new, untrained employees” in other cities that have higher pay scales than Atlanta, Johnson wrote.

“Not only will 26 employees in the Atlanta Office alone, lose their jobs if they are not able to transfer, but the reorganization as proposed will mean that the entire southern half of the United States will have no criminal antitrust enforcers who are familiar with these geographic regions, markets, businesses, the Courts and antitrust bar,” he wrote. “The Department would likely see diminished deterrence as a result and its actions would give credence to the old adage that out of sight means out of mind.”

A PDF of Rep. Johnson’s letter is viewable here.

Under a rule change announced Monday and effective March 1, the court’s clerk is prohibited from receiving or filing an application, petition for certiorari  or appellant’s brief in a direct appeal until the party submitting the document pays the required costs or provides sufficient evidence of indigency. Prior to the revisions, the court’s rules said costs had to be paid at the time of filing—and noted attorneys could be sanctioned for failure to pay—but did not specifically forbid the clerk’s office from accepting a filing without payment.

The required fees are $300 in most civil cases and $80 in criminal and most habeas corpus cases. Costs are not required for certified questions, disciplinary cases, or State Bar or Office of Bar Admissions matters.

Under the rule, there are four ways of proving indigency. The revised rule allows the filing of an affidavit of indigency with the Supreme Court, while the prior version required indigent status to be granted by the trial court.

AG Sam Olens (L) and Bill Bolling of the Atlanta Community Food Bank announce Georgia Legal Food Frenzy 2012. Click photo for Facebook slide show of the press conference.

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens is hoping to stir up competition between law firms.

Olens announced Wednesday at the Capitol the start of a new statewide food drive to benefit the seven regional food banks of the Georgia Food Bank Association. The Georgia Legal Food Frenzy will begin April 23 and will pit firms, large and small, private and public, against each other to see which can collect the most donations.

Three other states participate in similar food drives.

“Half a million children in this state live in poverty,” Olens said. “One in six Georgians lack adequate access to food. The face of hunger in this state is getting worse and worse as this recession lingers.”

The two-week drive will end May 4 to coincide with Law Day. The winning firm will be awarded the Attorney General’s Cup, and smaller awards will recognize firms with large per capita donations.

Olens said the goal should be to collect more than 600,000 pounds of food, which Virginia collected its first year participating in the Food Frenzy. Five years later, Virginia collects more than one million pounds.

Law firms that want to enter the Food Frenzy can sign up beginning today at www.galegalfoodfrenzy.org.

On Tuesday, a committee of Georgia lawmakers took a quick vote on a bill that would correct an omission in legislation passed last year by the General Assembly that changed the way juries are compiled. The jury composition overhaul bill, known as House Bill 415, inadvertently did not carry over language from part of the prior statute that prohibits specific people from serving as jurors.

House Bill 763, sponsored by Rep. Alex Atwood, R-Brunswick, seeks to reinsert the provision that “any person who has been convicted of a
felony in a state or federal court who has not had his or her civil rights restored and any person who has been declared mentally incompetent shall not be eligible to serve as a trial juror.”

Atwood, a lawyer, said his bill was introduced this session out of “an abundance of caution.” The bill also has been endorsed by the Judicial Council of Georgia.

The House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the H763, so it will go to the full House for a vote.

This year’s honorees are Norman L. Underwood of Troutman Sanders for his lifetime commitment to public service; Jan Pratt, who retired last year from her post as director of Emory Law School’s field placement and pro bono programs; and Susan C. Jamieson, who founded the Atlanta Legal Aid Society’s Mental Health and Disability Rights project 25 years ago. Jamieson won a landmark 1999 Supreme Court ruling for disability rights, Olmstead v. L.C., representing two women in a Georgia mental institution who wanted to live in the community.

To attend, contact Sue McAvoy at smcavoy@law.emory.edu.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (also known as the “motor voter” law) establishes all public assistance offices as official voter registration agencies and requires that people applying for public assistance, food stamps, Medicaid or Medicare, among other federal programs, be given voter registration applications.

In suing Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Clyde L. Reese, the state’s commissioner of the state Human Resources Department. last year, the NAACP and the Peoples’ Agenda claimed that the state had implemented official policies of discontinuing to offer voter registration forms or services to many public assistance clients in violation of federal law.

The plaintiffs had claimed that none of the state public assistance offices visited by investigators last September had included a voter registration form with the benefits application and that eight of 11 offices visited could provide a voter registration application upon request.

The suit also claims that 44 or 50 people interviewed were not offered the chance to register to vote when they filed for public assistance and that none of 23 people who had met with a caseworker had been offered the opportunity to register to vote.

The state had sought to dismiss the case, claiming that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue and that they had failed to give “proper pre-suit notice” of their complaint.

The case is Georgia State Conference of the NAACP v. Brian Kemp, No. 1:11-cv-1849 (N.D. Ga.)

During testimony Tuesday afternoon in Fulton County Superior Court, attorneys for Atlanta said that in the wake of last month’s contentious round of contract awards, the city began researching, vetting and printing hundreds of thousands of documents and put together a crew of more than 60 people, including 45 city and private lawyers , to compile and vet the materials.

Andrews said the city had been billed $300,000 by Global Legal Discovery to print and preserve in e-format hundreds of thousands of documents, and that he expected the city to be billed “in excess of $500,000 from private attorneys” hired to handle the document requests so far.

“I don’t want to be around when we get that one,” said Andrews.

The hearing was called by one of the unsuccessful bidders, international airport concessionaire SSP America Inc., to address the company’s assertions that the city had failed to completely respond to a judge’s order earlier this month to provide Open Records Act materials it needs to prepare an appeal of the denial of its bid.

SSP’s attorney, Ashe Rafuse & Hill partner Kenneth B. Hodges III, asked Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr. to hold the city in contempt and rule that it was in violation of the ORA. But Greenberg Traurig partner Mark G.  Trigg – an outside attorney the city hired Monday– said that the list of documents and materials Hodges was seeking had largely been provided, did not exist, or were protected by attorney client privilege.

Bedford called a halt in the proceedings late Tuesday afternoon when a court staffer had a private emergency.

House Bill 683 was filed in December. It passed the House on Jan. 24 in a 150-20 vote and sailed through the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.

The bill could come up for a full Senate vote if and when it is approved by the Senate Rules Committee, which meets this afternoon. Today is the 11^th day of the 2012 regular session.

HB 683’s two basic premises are:

1. When an entity, such as a bank or corporation, is a garnishee in a garnishment proceeding, the execution and filing of an answer shall not constitute the
   practice of law and does not require an attorney.
2. The entity’s payment of garnishment also shall not constitute the practice of law.

The legislation, sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, is an attempt to undue a controversial September 2011 state Supreme Court ruling that approved a Georgia Bar opinion that held that a non-attorney who answers for a garnishee other than him/herself in a pending legal proceeding was engaged in the unlicensed practice of law.

The bill also would raise that amount of attorney fees that a garnishee could subtract from $25 to $50 or 10 percent of the amount paid into court, whichever is greater. However that amount could not exceed $100.

Sen. Charlie Bethel, R-Dalton, has agreed to shepherd the bill through his chamber.

Willard told representatives during a House Judiciary Committee meeting earlier this month that he hopes his bill will be among the first signed into law by the governor this year.

The Daily Report’s Jan. 17 story on HB 683 and how the Bar took no position is here.

Baby Bear said Goldilocks came into his house–”uninvited, mind you”–sat on his chair and broke it. Goldilocks responded she was sorry, she had been tired, the chair fit just right and it broke by accident.

“Accidents do happen,” Sotomayor mused, and suggested a settlement in which Goldilocks would help Baby Bear fix the chair with glue.

Before Maria and the justice could resume their coffee, three little pigs and a wolf showed up seeking certiorari.

There was no word on whether “Sesame Street” will get to televise March’s arguments on the health care case.

Valtrez Stewart, 29, of Oak Lawn, Ill., pleaded guilty to four counts of mailing threatening communications that contained collages of newspaper and magazines clippings.  The indictment also accused Stewart of issuing threats against two other schools — Marietta Middle School and Stone Mountain Middle School.

The messages, according to federal prosecutors, claimed that a bomb would detonate at the targeted school, killing at last 20 people.  The messages also promised what prosecutors described as “brutal murders” if money was not paid to certain individuals by a certain date.

According to federal prosecutors, Stewart made the threats as a way of prompting law enforcement agencies to begin investigating people he disliked for allegedly making the deadly threats that Stewart himself had made.

Stewart is scheduled to be sentenced March 28 and faces as much as 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Ewart, a 2003 graduate of Emory’s law school and an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, was pro bono counsel for Troy Davis, executed in September for the 1989 shooting of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Backed by Ewart, other lawyers and a worldwide network of activists, Davis had long maintained his innocence.

Emory law professor Kay L. Levine’s Q&A with Ewart can be found on the video following a pitch for Emory’s fundraising campaign by an Emory law student. Our reporting on the highlights of the event can be found here.