A former judicial candidate has had his license to practice law suspended for 91 days after the Florida Supreme Court determined that he had violated the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct for posting anti-gay and anti-Muslim screeds on social media.
Donald McBath, a retired attorney and Florida Bar member who lost to Doneene Loar in the nonpartisan primary for for Florida’s 6th Circuit Court in 2018, is one of 15 attorneys in the Sunshine State disciplined by the state’s high court this month. The list of such candidates only just became available, even though the court order suspending McBath’s license was issued on Nov. 27.
In its write-up of McBath’s suspension, the high court wrote that the lawyer “made written and oral statements concerning his political affiliations and his views of classes of parties and issues that were hate-filled, unprofessional and inappropriate.”
In a complaint filed against him by the Florida Bar, McBath was accused of violating the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct when he made comments on social media that “failed to maintain the dignity appropriate to judicial office and act in a manner that is consistent with impartiality, integrity, and independence of the judiciary,” reports The Miami Herald.
The complaint also accuses McBath of opining on certain classes of parties, cases, or issues that “are likely to come before the court,” making promises to rule in certain ways that betray his ability to be impartial in such cases, and of expressing stances on political issues, as well as touting his support for Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
McBath responded to the 20-part complaint against him with the following statement: “1-20. ADMIT.”
McBath’s comments include Twitter posts in which he says to “never trust a Muslim” and “Muslims are deranged.”
He also tweeted: “If the homosexual continues committing that sin of sodomy, his soul faces ETERNAL damnation. Abstain, if you really have that mental illness. It’s not love.”
He also made comments calling an abortion doctor “satanic,” and, in another post, called liberals “very sick people” who “have no Judeo-Christian values.”
McBath is currently serving his 91-day suspension concurrently with a year’s suspension he received for what the Herald classifies as “incompetence and laziness” in a separate case.
A Democratic-led coalition has written a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding access to Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay Venezuelan national who was in the process of seeking asylum when he was forcibly deported to El Salvador and imprisoned at a controversial maximum-security prison in that country.
Leading the charge on the letter are U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), along with U.S. Reps. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), and Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.).
In what is another mean-spirited swipe at the LGBTQ community by the Trump administration, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the U.S. Navy to rename a ship bearing the name of gay rights icon Harvey Milk.
As reported by Military.com, a memorandum from Navy Secretary John Phelan detailed plans to strip the USNS Harvey Milk of its name later this month.
According to the memo, Hegseth and Phelan had planned to announce a new name for the Milk on June 13 during a press event aboard the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned Navy ship.
In a tense House hearing, a pair of congressional Democrats blasted Pentagon officials for stripping gay rights icon Harvey Milk’s name from a Navy ship, accusing the military of erasing LGBTQ history. U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.), an out gay Democrat, directly confronted Navy Secretary John Phelan over the decision during the June 11 Armed Services Committee meeting.
"I just wanted to take a moment to talk about a veteran who served on a submarine as a diving officer during the Korean War," Sorensen said, referring to Milk's biography before actually naming him.
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A former judicial candidate has had his license to practice law suspended for 91 days after the Florida Supreme Court determined that he had violated the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct for posting anti-gay and anti-Muslim screeds on social media.
Donald McBath, a retired attorney and Florida Bar member who lost to Doneene Loar in the nonpartisan primary for for Florida’s 6th Circuit Court in 2018, is one of 15 attorneys in the Sunshine State disciplined by the state’s high court this month. The list of such candidates only just became available, even though the court order suspending McBath’s license was issued on Nov. 27.
In its write-up of McBath’s suspension, the high court wrote that the lawyer “made written and oral statements concerning his political affiliations and his views of classes of parties and issues that were hate-filled, unprofessional and inappropriate.”
In a complaint filed against him by the Florida Bar, McBath was accused of violating the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct when he made comments on social media that “failed to maintain the dignity appropriate to judicial office and act in a manner that is consistent with impartiality, integrity, and independence of the judiciary,” reports The Miami Herald.
The complaint also accuses McBath of opining on certain classes of parties, cases, or issues that “are likely to come before the court,” making promises to rule in certain ways that betray his ability to be impartial in such cases, and of expressing stances on political issues, as well as touting his support for Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
McBath responded to the 20-part complaint against him with the following statement: “1-20. ADMIT.”
McBath’s comments include Twitter posts in which he says to “never trust a Muslim” and “Muslims are deranged.”
He also tweeted: “If the homosexual continues committing that sin of sodomy, his soul faces ETERNAL damnation. Abstain, if you really have that mental illness. It’s not love.”
He also made comments calling an abortion doctor “satanic,” and, in another post, called liberals “very sick people” who “have no Judeo-Christian values.”
McBath is currently serving his 91-day suspension concurrently with a year’s suspension he received for what the Herald classifies as “incompetence and laziness” in a separate case.
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