Land was in the spotlight in late 2009 when he tried the case
Rhodes v. Macdonald, in which Army physician Connie Rhodes attempted to secure a restraining order against her being deployed to Iraq on the argument that President
Barack Obama was not born in the United States and was ineligible to serve as President. Land rejected the argument as
frivolous. Within hours of Land's decision, the physician's attorney,
Orly Taitz, told the news site
Talking Points Memo that she felt Land's refusal to hear her case was an act of
treason. Two days later, she filed a motion to stay Rhodes' deployment pending rehearing of the dismissal order. She repeated her treason allegations against Land and made several other intemperate statements, including claims that Land was aiding and abetting purported aspirations of "
dictatorship" by Obama. Land rejected the motion as frivolous and ordered her to
show cause why she should not be
fined $10,000 for
abuse of judicial process. After Rhodes asked for Taitz to be removed as her attorney, on October 13, 2009, Judge Land issued a scathing 40-page ruling sanctioning Taitz and imposed a monetary penalty of $20,000 under Rule 11 of the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Upon learning of Land's ruling, Taitz told Talking Points Memo that she would not pay the fine, calling it "intimidation". Judge Land ruled to continue the incarceration of
ICE detainees at the
Irwin County Detention Center in
Irwin County, Georgia during the
COVID-19 crisis. During the more than three-month period, from the original filing to the day of the hearing, one inmate in a nearby facility died from the disease. In his summation he indicated that he had "not heard anything terribly persuasive to change my mind." ==References==