Sam Sloan
Samuel Howard Sloan (born September 7, 1944) is an American perennial candidate and former broker-dealer. In 1978, he was the last non-lawyer to argue a case pro se before the United States Supreme Court. The court eventually prohibited non-lawyers from arguing cases before them in 2013.[1][2]
In 2006, Sloan served on the executive board of the United States Chess Federation. He has run unsuccessfully or attempted to run for several political offices, including President of the United States.
Sloan was born in Richmond, Virginia and graduated high school in 1962.[2] He studied at University of California, Berkeley, where he became president of the Sexual Freedom League branch before dropping out.[3][2]
Sloan studied chess from the age of 7 years old.[2] In 1959, he was the youngest competitor in the National Capital Open Chess Tournament in Washington, D.C.[4] United States Chess Federation's database reports that he has played in 152 chess tournaments since 1991 and that his highest FIDE rating was 2107 in 1997.[5] When he was young, he attended a series of lectures by Bobby Fischer at the Marshall Chess Club.[2]
Starting in 1968, Sloan worked for two years in the over-the-counter trading department at the Wall Street investment banking firm Hayden, Stone & Co. In 1970, he established Samuel H. Sloan & Company, a registered broker-dealer primarily trading over-the-counter stocks and bonds.[citation needed] The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought civil actions against Sloan & Co. starting in 1971, alleging he had failed to maintain adequate books and records, and revoked his broker-dealer registration in 1975. After years of litigation, he prevailed in a case against the SEC at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978, arguing his case pro se. He submitted a 175-page brief that the New Republic described as a "singularly absurd and complicated document" with "far too many obfuscations and legal shenanigans".[2] The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the "tacking" of 10-day summary suspension orders for an indefinite period was an abuse of the SEC's authority and a deprivation of due process. Sloan is the last non-lawyer to argue before the court, which prohibited that practice in 2013.[2][6][7][1]
In the 1980s, Sloan assumed control of Ishi Press, a digital and print-on-demand publishing company.[2] He has published several non-fiction works, including The Slave Children of Thomas Jefferson, Mafia Moll: The Judith Exner Story, and instructional and analytic pieces for chess and other games.[8] He has also published several blog posts to his personal website.[9]
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