Legal Ethics
Law Grad Cited for Frivolous Suits is Source of Obama Muslim Rumors
Posted Oct 13, 2008, 08:46 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The source of false rumors that Barack Obama is a Muslim appears to be Andy Martin, a law graduate blocked from bar admission and criticized in two jurisdictions for filing frivolous lawsuits.
Martin was previously known as Anthony Martin-Trigona. He was criticized for filing frivolous lawsuits by the Florida Supreme Court and a federal judge in New York, who blocked him from filing any more suits without advance approval, reports the Miami Herald’s 5-Minute Herald and the New York Times.
The Los Angeles Times describes Martin as a "serial litigant" in its coverage.
The Illinois Supreme Court refused to admit Martin to the Illinois bar because of his abuse of the court system and a draft board’s finding that he exhibited “a moderately-severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character,'' the 5-Minute Herald reports.
Martin has run—but lost—several races for political office. He has made several anti-Semitic comments in court motions, including one that called a bankruptcy judge “a crooked, slimy Jew who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race,” the Times story says. Martin told the Times that malicious judges inserted some of the comments attributed to him. The comment about the bankruptcy judge was intended to assert he was being victimized by religious bias, he said.
Martin wrote a 2004 press release, widely circulated on the Internet, that said Obama is a Muslim who had concealed his religion.
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