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Samuel Howard Sloan (born September 7, 1944), also known as Haji Mohammed Ismail Sloan, is an American chess journalist, and publisher. Sloan had no formal legal training but orally argued a case in front of the Supreme Court of the United States after suing the Securities and Exchange Commission over policies regarding the trading of penny stocks. The Court ruled in his favor, 9-0, concerning his claim that the "tacking" of 10-day summary suspension orders for an indefinite period was an abuse of the agency's authority and a deprivation of due process.

Early life and education

Sloan was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1944 to attorney Leroy Bayfield Sloan and doctor Marjorie Jacobson Sloan. His family later moved to Lynchburg, and attended E.C. Glass High School. Sloan studied chess from an early age, and dropped out of the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in mathematics, but did not earn a degree.

Career

After leaving Berkeley, Sloan worked two years for the Wall Street Investment Banking firm of Hayden, Stone & Co. in the over-the-counter trading department. In 1970, he established Samuel H. Sloan & Co., a registered broker-dealer primarily trading over-the-counter stocks and bonds. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought civil actions against Sloan & Co. in 1971–1975 alleging he had failed to maintain adequate books and records. In 1975, the SEC revoked Sloan's broker-dealer registration. After years of litigation, Sloan in 1978 prevailed in the U.S. Supreme Court. Sloan argued the case pro se even though he was not an attorney. The opposing attorney was Harvey Pitt, who was later Chairman of the SEC from 2001 to 2003. Sloan won before the U.S. Supreme Court 9-0. Sloan is the last non-lawyer to argue before the court. Justice Rehnquist's majority opinion stated that "During this series of suspensions respondent Sloan, who owned 13 shares of CJL stock and had engaged in substantial purchases and short sales of shares of that stock, filed a petition in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit challenging the orders on a variety of grounds. On October 15, 1975, the court dismissed as frivolous all respondent's claims, except his allegation that the 'tacking' of 10-day summary suspension orders for an indefinite period was an abuse of the agency's authority and a deprivation of due process." The Supreme Court agreed.

Sloan has written an extensive lexicon of Khowar, a language spoken in Chitral, Pakistan. Sloan had a minor role in a commercially-produced film, that later became a video game, Mahjong Hōrōki Classic. He is now primarily a publisher of books and DVDs about chess, go and other subjects.

Sloan is a chess journalist and author. He has claimed that when he was playing for U.C. Berkeley in the late 1960s, he was for a time playing at master strength, but he was never officially rated as such in the United States. His current U.S.C.F. rating is 1900. He claims to have traveled to 78 countries, primarily attending chess tournaments. He has claimed to have "won the World Championship of Chinese Chess in Beijing, China, in 1988." He is rated an FM (equivalent to FIDE Master) by the World Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) Association. Sloan has competed in tournaments in Thai (Makrook) and Japanese (Shogi) chess.

Activities since 2005

From 2002 to 2006, Sloan was active in the Libertarian Party of New York attempting to influence its policy agenda and candidate nominations. In an April 30, 2006, email to Michael Badnarik's 2004 Presidential campaign mailing list, an individual claiming to be Sloan announced his intention to seek the Libertarian Party nomination for Governor of New York State. In 2006 Sloan was elected as an officer to the Manhattan Libertarian Party County Committee as Director of Media Relations. He was not re-elected to that position in 2007. He was a delegate to the 2008 Libertarian National Convention and the 2010 Libertarian National Convention. On May 25, 2008 in Denver, Colorado, Sloan was nominated to the National Committee of the Libertarian Party and made a speech addressing the Libertarian National Convention.

In July 2006, Sloan was elected to the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation (USCF). He advocated a major expansion of scholastic chess, stating that the USCF should establish a program to certify school chess teachers. He criticized the USCF's recent move from New Windsor, New York to Crossville, Tennessee. As second-place finisher (out of five) in the special election, Sloan was elected to a one-year term on the board (the first-place finisher received a three-year term). Sloan's term of service began in August 2006. In 2007, Sloan ran for reelection to the USCF Executive Board, but was unsuccessful, finishing a distant ninth out of ten candidates. On October 2, 2007, Sloan filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking to overturn the results of the 2007 USCF, and alleging that more than 2,000 obscene "Fake Sam Sloan" newsgroup postings prior to the election had been made by a rival candidate, Paul Truong. On August 28, 2008, US District Judge Denny Chin dismissed the suit with prejudice pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), 12(b)(2) and 12(b)(6). Nevertheless, an investigation by the United States Secret Service has established that Sloan was impersonated by Polgar and Truong more than 2,500 times.

On 3 April 2008, posts appeared on USENET, apparently placed by Mr. Sloan, claiming that some of his websites had been closed down by law enforcement in Amherst County, Virginia, apparently because Sloan listed the home addresses of parties involved in his long-running but moot child custody dispute involving his daughter. The USENET posting mentions County investigator Christopher Smith. During that same time, Smith was conducting a broad campaign against Internet crime in the State.

Sloan renewed his bid for governor in the New York gubernatorial election, 2010, facing off against attorney Warren Redlich and former madam Kristin M. Davis. Sloan, by his own admission, is not popular within the Libertarian Party of New York and did not expect to win the nomination. He has testified that he only agreed to run for the post after Davis dropped out of contention for the line and a faction in the party who opposed Redlich's nomination needed another candidate. Sloan eventually lost the nomination to Redlich in a two-way battle, by a vote of 27 for Redlich and 17 for Sloan, after Davis refused to show up at the convention. Despite his failure to secure the nomination, Sloan was the first to submit petitions to the board of elections with the Libertarian Party line, which effectively gives him the nomination; the down-ballot selections on Sloan's petitions are identical to those confirmed by the party committee. However, because his petitions failed to contain anywhere near the requisite 15,000 signatures, the nomination will go to Redlich; it has been speculated that Sloan is using the ploy to file a lawsuit against Redlich in his long-running dispute with the state Libertarian Party. Prior to the November elections, Roger Stone Davis's campaign manager, claims that Sloan fed him information that Stone passed on to a group entitled "People for a Safer New York," who created a flyer labeling Redlich a "sexual predator." The book Endgame: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Bobby Fischer, ISBN 978-0307463906 by Frank Brady page 173 states, "Aided by an Eidetic Memory was the last non-lawyer to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court - a case he won. Bobby trusted him."

Private life

Sloan has been married three times and has eight children by five women. Sloan's second wife, Honzagool, was a native of Chitral and together they had a daughter named Shamema born in New York State on October 15, 1981. Sloan and Honzagool soon separated and Sloan fled New York for Virginia with Shamema, soon leaving Shamema in the care of a Virginia couple, while Honzagool soon returned to Chitral. Sloan was soon locked into a now-moot child custody struggle with that Virginia couple over that same daughter which lasted many years. On September 5, 1991, Sloan attempted to flee the USA with Shamema and he was arrested. Sloan was convicted of attempted abduction of Shamema, a felony, for which he spent 18 months in state prison.

Sloan has converted to Islam and thus he is also known as Haji Mohammed Ismail Sloan.

Books

• Sex Marchers (with Jefferson Poland, eds., Elysium, Inc. 1968) ISBN 0-923891-13-7
• Khowar English Dictionary (as Mohammad Ismail Sloan, 1981) (published in Pakistan) ISBN 0-923891-15-3
• Chinese Chess for Beginners (1989) ISBN 0-923891-11-0
• How to Take over an American Public Company (1992) ISBN 1-881373-01-0
• The Slave Children of Thomas Jefferson (1992) ISBN 1-881373-02-9
• The Farm Book by Thomas Jefferson with light notes and annotations by Sam Sloan ISBN 0-923891-80-3
• Mafia Moll: The Judith Exner Story, The Life of the Mistress of John F. Kennedy (2008) ISBN 0923891900
• Sam Sloan Teaches A+ 50 Helpful Questions ISBN 0923891064

See also http://samsownbooks.com/

Court cases

Sloan is a litigious private citizen. Among his cases that petitioned or reached the federal level are:

• Sloan v. Nixon, 60 FRD 228 (1973)
• Sloan v. Virginia, No. 95-8909
• SEC v. Sloan, 436 US 103

References

1. Daniel L. Ackman, Journalist, Screenwriter, Lawyer, et al. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
2. Sam Sloan's Website Dr. Marjorie Jacobson Sloan, June 27, 1937 - May 16, 2002 (Primary Source)
3. Sam Sloan's Website Leroy Bayfield Sloan, May 2, 1910 - January 19, 1986 (Primary Source)
4. SEC v. Samuel H. Sloan, 436 U.S. 103 (1978)
5. Building a Better Advocate, Tony Mauro, The American Lawyer. October 11, 2002
6. Dan Ackman (2004-06-30). "The Man in the Yellow Cab: Sam Sloan". New York Sun.
7. "Khowar English Dictionary". Anusha.com. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
8. Sam Sloan at IMDb
9. Sam Sloan's speech at the Libertarian Party of New York's convention April 29, 2006. See claim at 1:00 nmark.
10. World Xiangqi Federation see Master Database, see No. 2078 on the rating list
11. Sam Sloan for Governor, Libertarian Party of New York May 14, 2006
12. Video: Sam Sloan Interviewed on the Harold Channer Show June 19, 2008
13. Drive to Recall Member of Chess Federation’s Board Is Under Way March 23, 2008
14. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Rule 12
15. Government Filing Connects Polgar to Criminal Case
16. Amherst County Sheriff shuts down Sam Sloan's websites April 3, 2008
17. Karlin, Rick (2010-04-23). Tomorrow: Three-way Libertarian smack-down in Albany!. Albany Times Union.'.' Retrieved 2010-04-23.
18. Wilder, Kimberly (2010-08-13). Libertarian Sam Sloan files for Governor of NY. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
19. Stone, Roger (2010-11-04). Libertarian Payback. StoneZone.com. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
20. "Sam Sloan's Home Page". Anusha.com. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
21. 92 Civ. 2388 (RJD) Report and recommendation June 28, 1993, US Magistrate Judge Marilyn Go on Sloan
22. Virginia Circuit case information Select Circuit Case Information, Lynchburg Circuit and then enter case number CR91003195-00 on form. Ten cases/charges in all.
23. § 18.2-47 of the Code of Virginia: Abduction and kidnapping defined; punishment
24. § 18.2-26 of the Code of Virginia: Attempts to commit noncapital felonies; how punished
25. Reply of Mansoor Ijaz March 3, 2003
26. Harold Channer interview of Sam Sloan March 3, 2003
27. SEC v. Sloan (anusha.com)

External links

• Sam Sloan player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Sam Sloan rating card at FIDE
• Sam Sloan's Home Page
• Photos of Sam Sloan

Template:Persondata

• 1944 births
• American chess players
• American linguists
• University of California, Berkeley alumni
• American non-fiction writers
• American chess writers
• Usenet people
• Living people
• Xiangqi players
• New York Libertarians
• Chess historians