(California) State bar declines to act on anti-gay attorney
Source: Bay Area Reporter
The State Bar of California has declined to pursue administrative action against an Orange County attorney who has submitted a proposed ballot measure calling for gays to be killed, according to a woman who started an online petition to have him disbarred.
Attorney Matthew McLaughlin filed his "Sodomite Suppression Act" with the state Attorney General's office a few months ago. The measure calls for gays to be killed with "bullets to the head" or other means. The proposal also calls for imprisonment of people who support LGBTs, and that they should be fined, exiled from the state, and barred from public office.
... Carol Dahmen, a political media consultant based in West Sacramento, launched a change.org petition calling for McLaughlin's disbarment. The petition has accrued more than 137,000 signatures to date. On May 4 Dahmen received a letter from Dane C. Dauphine, assistant chief trial counsel for the State Bar of California. Dauphine said that the state bar does not condone McLaughlin's actions, but that it was closing the matter without taking any action.
"This office appreciates your efforts in opposing bigotry and hate," Dauphine wrote in the letter, a copy of which Dahmen provided to the Bay Area Reporter. "We also believe that Mr. McLaughlin's political and social views are not shared by many members of the bar or by the California community at large. This office is limited, however, in our ability to prosecute attorneys who, in their personal capacity, engage in offensive speech. This is true even where the speech is hateful and morally reprehensible."
Read more: http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=70587
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That's maybe the most disturbing part of the article for me.
