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It appears that the Right seem to have found smoking gun to bring down soon to be First Lady, Michelle Obama. While past archaeological digs ranging from the infamous whitey tape to her senior Princeton thesis to supposedly telling all about Barack’s birth in Kenya have garnered nothing but dust, many feel they have now hit true pay dirt. The ”dirt” now is the revelation that Michelle Obama is on “Court Ordered Inactive Status” according to the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court (ARDC) of Illinois. The Right-Wingers are chopping on the bits here, here, here, here, and here to site just a few of the 15 Google Search pages devouring this story.
As blogged here, the ADRC is a disciplinary commission BUT it is also a commission that ALL attorneys - active or inactive - in Illinois must register and pay the requisite fees.
LET THE RECORD SHOW that:
The Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission, an agency of the Illinois Supreme Court, is responsible for maintaining current records of registration and discipline information for lawyers licensed to practice in Illinois… (Source: ADRC)
An attorney may advise the Administrator in writing that he or she desires to assume inactive status and, thereafter, register as an inactive status attorney. The annual registration fee for an inactive status attorney shall be $105. Upon such registration, the attorney shall be placed upon inactive status and shall no longer be eligible to practice law or hold himself or herself out as being authorized to practice law in this State. (Source: ADRC)
As blogged here, Michelle has been on Court-Ordered Inactive status since 1993. The ARDC Attorney’s Registration and Disciplinary Record for Michelle clearly states, however, that her inactive status was voluntary and that there is no “Public Record of Discipline and Pending Proceedings”. But be blog-eologist negates to mention that Michelle left the Chicago Law Firm of Sidley and Austin to become an Assistant to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in 1993. LET THE RECORD SHOW that there is nothing unusual about Michelle Lavaughn Robinson Obama’s Registration and Public Disciplinary Record as reported by the ADRC here.
But wait a minute! If you take a look at the President-elect’s ARDC record, you’ll see that he, too is on inactive status! But the difference is that his inactive status was NOT court ordered! Oh my! What could the First Lady in Waiting possibly done to have been ordered by the Supreme Court of Illinois to inactive status?!
Well, it appears that the only thing that Michelle Obama did was to file for voluntary inactive status sometime before 1999 when all such requests when approved where indeed court ordered.
LET THE RECORD SHOW:
Prior to November 1, 1999, former Supreme Court Rule 770 provided for a proceeding in the Court for any voluntary transfer to inactive status, whether because of some incapacitating condition or solely as a matter of the lawyer’s preference because the lawyer would not be practicing law. (Source: ADRC)
Sorry folks, no smoking guns in this story. You can stop digging, because unlike the infamous whitey tape you’ll only find very flimsy circumstantial evidence that defies common sense. LET THE RECORD SHOW, if there were any truth to these accusations, it would have come out after Iowa!
Much Obliged, SjP
**Originally posted by SjP of Sojourner's Place at Michelle Obama Watch
