A former judicial candidate in Florida who made hateful, bigoted comments about Muslims and homosexuals on social media has been suspended from practicing law, according to reports.
Donald McBath, a 62-year-old former US Army major who lost his bid to become a Sixth Judicial Circuit judge last year, was barred Friday from working as a divorce and family attorney for 91 days for failing to “maintain the dignity” needed by judges and lawyers in Florida, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The Florida Supreme Court noted 15 troubling remarks McBath previously posted on Facebook or Twitter, including a February 2017 warning for others to “never trust a Muslim” and comparisons of homosexuality to mental illness.
“If the homosexual continues committing that sin of sodomy, his soul faces ETERNAL damnation,” McBath wrote on Facebook in February 2018. “Abstain, if you really have that mental illness. It’s not love.”
McBath also took aim at abortion providers and called liberals “very sick people” in other social media posts.
“They absolutely have no Judeo-Christian values,” he wrote of the latter group.
McBath – a grandfather and father of four – had insisted that he would be able to keep those disparaging beliefs out of the courtroom if elected as a circuit judge in Pinellas-Pasco counties, but he lost in the primary by 16 points to a former prosecutor, the newspaper noted.
“I absolutely can still be fair no matter what kind of beliefs that I may have,” McBath told the newspaper in May 2018. “We all have our own personal beliefs based on what’s happened in our lives, and as long as it doesn’t interfere with how we treat a person, that’s the goal.”
McBath retired from his San Antonio law practice in 2018, according to the Florida Bar. He could not be reached for comment early Monday. He acknowledged the suspension with a one-word response, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“Admit,” McBath wrote.
The attorney’s Twitter account – which previously cited his support of President Trump, as well as his “pro-gun” and “anti-Sharia” beliefs – was also suspended as of Monday.
The Florida Supreme Court suspended McBath for violating the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct. He will serve the punishment concurrently with a yearlong suspension for incompetence in a separate case, the Miami Herald reported.