WASHINGTON -- Montgomery Blair Sibley, the disbarred D.C. attorney and presidential write-in candidate, has not wasted time since the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed his birther lawsuit on June 6.
"I immediately filed suit in the D.C. Superior Court against the D.C. Board of Elections [and Ethics]," Sibley told The Huffington Post on Tuesday.
This new lawsuit, filed June 8, asks that the Board of Elections and Ethics be compelled to "respond to investigate Sibley's Request challenging the eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama to be on the November 6, 2012, General Election ballot as a Presidential candidate."
Sibley, who counts among his many roles former lawyer for the late "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey and would-be medical marijuana entrepreneur, said he plans to appeal the federal court's dismissal as well and is still quietly running for president, if "not in the traditional sense and not necessarily for this election cycle."
His is "presently a web-based campaign," he told HuffPost.
Sibley insisted that his presidential run isn't just an attempt to bolster his lawsuits, although he has tried, unsuccessfully thus far, to use his candidacy in that way. Other birther suits have been denied on standing grounds, meaning that the courts have found those bringing the suits haven't shown they will be personally affected by the outcome of the case. In his U.S. District Court complaint, Sibley argued that because of his own run for the White House, he does have the requisite personal connection to the suit's outcome.
The court did not find Sibley's write-in campaign sufficient to grant him standing. "Self-declaration as a write-in candidate in the upcoming presidential election does not enable plaintiff to challenge President Obama's present position," wrote Judge John Bates in the dismissal, issued before the Supreme Court declined to take up the standing issue in the birther lawsuit filed by Alan Keyes, Wiley Drake and Markham Robinson.
Sibley told HuffPost that he is filing his lawsuits not because he harbors animosity toward Obama but because he seeks to defend the rule of law. His political platform has a similar, if slightly broader, focus: The campaign website mentions Sibley's interest in the "rule of law," his plan to increase the size of the House of Representatives to "some 10,000 representatives" and his commitment to "challenging the eligibility of Barrack Hussein Obama, II to be President of the United States."
Explaining why he deserves support, Sibley hearkens back 150 years to a relative, Montgomery Blair, who was Abraham Lincoln's postmaster general and an abolitionist (albeit a complicated figure in his own right).
"I would like to get some write-in votes," Sibley said, adding somewhat obscurely, "The last time a Montgomery Blair told the country things needed changing, the Civil War resulted."