Ramona Attorney May Have Long Wait on Obama Eligibility Appeal

As President Barack Obama left Southern California for Denver on Tuesday after his , a Ramona attorney continued to wait for a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a case about Obama's legitimacy to hold office.

It's likely to be a long wait.

Gary Kreep, founder of the , . At the time, Kreep said no other similar case in the country had made it that far along the judicial path. His case had been rejected at the federal court level by a judge who ruled that the court doesn't have jurisdiction to decide the eligibility of the president.

In his 9th Circuit Court presentation in Pasadena, Kreep maintained that the public has a right to go into court to uphold the U.S. Constitution if they don't think a president was an eligible candidate. His clients are two former presidential candidates for a conservative Christian party who say they were "injured" when they were unable to beat Obama in the 2008 election. Kreep has not publicly specified what he has as evidence of Obama's ineligibilty; he's asking for a chance to do that in court. However, outside the court, he and other attorneys who have worked on the case make multiple references to the document most people have acknowledged as Obama's birth certificate from Hawaii.

Kreep presented his appeal request along with Rancho Santa Magarita attorney Orly Taitz, who represented 30 clients in a similar case. The U.S. Department of Justice represented Obama, arguing that Kreep hasn't proved an injury and that the case doesn't have "standing"—the right for a court to decide a matter.  An audio recording of Kreep's case, Wiley Drake vs. Barack Obama No. 09-56827 is available on the court's website.

Just how long will Kreep have to wait for the panel of three appellate judges to issue an opinion?

"The court can take a couple of years or more," a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals staff person told Patch a few months ago. He spoke on the grounds of anonymity. "They often like to wait and see how the Supreme Court rules on issues."

Kreep told Patch on Monday that he once had to wait nearly seven years before he got a response on one of his cases before the 9th Circuit Court.

"They asked me for two supplemental briefs and then they made me argue the whole case all over again because it had been so long," he said.

No one is reported to be holding a breath for the answer this time either.

While interested parties wait, Patch requested informal legal opinions from law professors at University of San Diego, Thomas Jefferson School of Law and University of California Los Angeles. Though repeated requests were made by phone and email to each of them months ago, Thomas Jefferson was the only school to respond.

Patch also researched Kreep's previous legal cases to get an overview and asked a few questions of people who have known him over the years. 

We'll present the responses in follow-up stories over the next few days.