Donald McBath has been suspended from the Florida Bar after some very troubling social media posts that violated the Florida Code of Judicial Conduct were uncovered.
McBath's posts were made during his campaign to become a state circuit court judge.
In a Florida Supreme Court filing, the Florida Bar said that McBath violated the code of ethics when he posted several anti-Muslim and anti-gay messages on his personal social media.
These posts were made both before and after he began his campaign for Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge.
They asserted that he:
"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."
The Florida Bar cited 15 different inappropriate and troubling social media posts on Twitter and Facebook.
Two of those tweets asserted that being gay was a mental illness and only those who refrained from sex were actually seeking to better themselves.
The bar also noted that McBath describes himself in his Twitter bio as:
"100% Trump supporter #MAGA; #KAG; proud DEPLORABLE; Pro-God; Christian; Pro-Life; Pro-Gun; Anti-Sharia; Constitutional Conservative; Former Major US Army"
McBath asserted that people should "never trust a Muslim," and vehemently supported President Trump's travel ban on social media.
According to the Miami Herald, he Florida Supreme Court found that McBath had violated the Florida Code of Judicial Conduct, and leveraged a 91 day suspension and a fine of $1,386.
He is concurrently serving a 1 year suspension for incompetence and violating a requirement of "other duties owed as a professional" in a family law case in 2016.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, McBath has been admonished or suspended by the Florida Bar multiple times before.
Those included a 21 day suspension for filing frivolous paperwork in a divorce case, an admonishment for failure to completely represent a client, and a public reprimand for committing trust fund violations, among others.
McBath insisted that his beliefs about certain minority groups wouldn't affect his ability to treat members of those groups impartially if they were to appear before him in court.
He told the Tampa Bay Times:
"I absolutely can still be fair no matter what kind of beliefs that I may have. 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."
Voters apparently didn't believe this claim, however, as McBath lost his bid for Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge in the primary election by 16 points.
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