A lawyer best known for his work challenging the citizenship of President Barack Obama and the legitimacy of his administration has won a seat on the San Diego Superior Court, defeating a deputy district attorney who had the backing of law enforcement unions and most of the Superior Court judges.

Gary Kreep, who played a prominent part in a birther infomercial and provided legal representation to groups challenging the president’s citizenship in court, is founder and executive director of the United States Justice Foundation (USJF). The group’s website questions whether one can be “a true Democrat and a true Christian,” implies that conservative GOP Congressman Darrell Issa’s unrelenting attack on the Justice Department’s “Operation Fast and Furious” is wimpy, and celebrates the recent move to thwart “any ideas the United Nations had about taking over the State of Alabama.” The foundation sued in 2008 to block the issuance of gender-neutral marriage licenses in California.

But the website’s main focus is on perceived Muslim terrorists who, with Obama’s help, are allegedly engaged in a campaign to destroy the U.S. Constitution and establish a government based on Islamic Shariah law.

Kreep serves as unpaid general counsel for the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, an organization that urged its membership in March 2010 to show up “locked and loaded” for voluntary border patrol aimed at keeping illegal aliens out of the country.

Before the election, the San Diego County Bar Association gave Kreep its lowest rating of “lacking qualifications” and his opponent, Garland Peed, its highest rating. The Superior Court handles a range of cases, from civil lawsuits to felony criminal cases; Kreep said he hopes to handle family court cases.

Kreep graduated in 1972 with a bachelor of art’s degree in economics from University of California, San Diego and received a juris doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law three years later.  

–Ken Broder

To Learn More:

Hate Group Leader to Serve as California State Judge (by Leah Nelson, Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch)

Gary Kreep Clinches Win for Judge (by Greg Moran, San Diego Union-Tribune)

Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Cancels Muster, Announces Dissolution (by Linda Bentley, Sonoran News)

Caltrans to Pay Minutemen in Settlement over Cleanup on I-5 (by Leslie Berestein, San Diego Union Tribune)

Gary Kreep for Judge (Official campaign website)