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  • Jack Thompson To Florida Bar Pres Young, Re Bill Gelin, JAABlog

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    Neil Gillespie
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    Dear Bar President Young: More than a week ago, before the matter became public, I wrote you and urged The Bar to desist from enforcing its clearly unconstitutional speech codes against Broward County attorney Bill Gelin for comments he posted on his public-spirited law blog. Besides The Bar’s obvious violations of the First Amendment in The Bar’s effort to punish a man who has helped clean up the Broward judiciary cesspool, the Florida Supreme Court in Bar v. Brake, 767 So. 2d. 1163 (Fla. 2000) held that a lawyer cannot be disciplined for such things unless he is representing a client in a case—in other words, unless he is practicing law while engaged in such activity. Now The Bar’s assault has hit the media fan, as three other South Florida law blogs are publicly standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Gelin. You were warned this would happen; it is only going to get worse for The Bar. Here is the inevitable scenario: Either The Bar is going to abide by the First Amendment, OR when it whacks Mr. Gelin then the salutary wrath of all sorts of defenders of the First Amendment is going to descend upon The Bar. A federal court will undo what The Bar has done, especially if Mr. Gelin avoids any Rooker-Feldman abstention problem by filing his federal suit now. You will, as an aside, also have to discipline the anonymous lawyer who calls himself "Rumpole" and who runs the Miami-based Justice Building Blog, whose comments about judges (including then Chief Judge Brown) far exceed any comments about judges Gelin has published. End result: The Bar’s speech codes will be declared unconstitutional. It’s not even a close call. But you have Bar staff prosecutors who never even practiced law holding the Sword of Damocles over Gelin and others. They do not know that through such dangerous silliness it is The Bar’s head that will be cut off. US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas predicted that eventually integrated state bars would become "goose-stepping brigades" bent upon destroying whistle-blowing, nonconformist attorneys. You have made yourself the Eva Braun of The Florida Bar. The happy result for me, in all this, is that my disbarment for engaging in First Amendment speech about judges and pornographers disseminating adult entertainment to kids, which speech was uttered while not practicing law on behalf of a client (see Brake), will be overturned when a federal court that reviews what you are doing in all these regards voids your indefensible , unconstitutional speech codes. You personally have pushed the idea that an "independent judiciary" means total insulation from citizens’ truthful comments about their corruption, ineptitude, and cronyism. For three hundred years, however, it has been understood by those who actually read the Constitution that independent lawyers are more important than an independent judiciary. The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors clearly could not presently pass a Constitutional law class; they are failing this important test. So, go ahead: Make my day. Stay the course against Mr. Gelin. I will be the beneficiary of such Nazi-like stupidity, for when the dust settles and The Bar has its head handed to it, I’ll then be practicing law again by virtue of the striking down of the very same lawyer speech codes that treat as criminal libel whistle-blowing by lawyers who are simply warning the public that judicial nitwits are on the loose. The reign of terror by The Florida Bar’s speech police is about to end, thanks to you and the other thugs who are The Bar’s own worst enemies. Appreciatively, Jack Thompson

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    Dear Bar President Young: More than a week ago, before the matter became public, I wrote you and urged The Bar to desist from enforcing its clearly unconstitutional speech codes against Broward County attorney Bill Gelin for comments he posted on his public-spirited law blog. Besides The Bar’s obvious violations of the First Amendment in The Bar’s effort to punish a man who has helped clean up the Broward judiciary cesspool, the Florida Supreme Court in Bar v. Brake, 767 So. 2d. 1163 (Fla. 2000) held that a lawyer cannot be disciplined for such things unless he is representing a client in a case—in other words, unless he is practicing law while engaged in such activity. Now The Bar’s assault has hit the media fan, as three other South Florida law blogs are publicly standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Gelin. You were warned this would happen; it is only going to get worse for The Bar. Here is the inevitable scenario: Either The Bar is going to abide by the First Amendment, OR when it whacks Mr. Gelin then the salutary wrath of all sorts of defenders of the First Amendment is going to descend upon The Bar. A federal court will undo what The Bar has done, especially if Mr. Gelin avoids any Rooker-Feldman abstention problem by filing his federal suit now. You will, as an aside, also have to discipline the anonymous lawyer who calls himself "Rumpole" and who runs the Miami-based Justice Building Blog, whose comments about judges (including then Chief Judge Brown) far exceed any comments about judges Gelin has published. End result: The Bar’s speech codes will be declared unconstitutional. It’s not even a close call. But you have Bar staff prosecutors who never even practiced law holding the Sword of Damocles over Gelin and others. They do not know that through such dangerous silliness it is The Bar’s head that will be cut off. US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas predicted that eventually integrated state bars would become "goose-stepping brigades" bent upon destroying whistle-blowing, nonconformist attorneys. You have made yourself the Eva Braun of The Florida Bar. The happy result for me, in all this, is that my disbarment for engaging in First Amendment speech about judges and pornographers disseminating adult entertainment to kids, which speech was uttered while not practicing law on behalf of a client (see Brake), will be overturned when a federal court that reviews what you are doing in all these regards voids your indefensible , unconstitutional speech codes. You personally have pushed the idea that an "independent judiciary" means total insulation from citizens’ truthful comments about their corruption, ineptitude, and cronyism. For three hundred years, however, it has been understood by those who actually read the Constitution that independent lawyers are more important than an independent judiciary. The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors clearly could not presently pass a Constitutional law class; they are failing this important test. So, go ahead: Make my day. Stay the course against Mr. Gelin. I will be the beneficiary of such Nazi-like stupidity, for when the dust settles and The Bar has its head handed to it, I’ll then be practicing law again by virtue of the striking down of the very same lawyer speech codes that treat as criminal libel whistle-blowing by lawyers who are simply warning the public that judicial nitwits are on the loose. The reign of terror by The Florida Bar’s speech police is about to end, thanks to you and the other thugs who are The Bar’s own worst enemies. Appreciatively, Jack Thompson

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    Jack Thompson To Florida Bar Pres Young, Re Bill Gelin, JAABlog

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    Neil Gillespie
    Dear Bar President Young: More than a week ago, before the matter became public, I wrote you and urged The Bar to desist from enforcing its clearly unconstitutional speech codes against Broward County attorney Bill Gelin for comments he posted on his public-spirited law blog. Besides The Bar’s obvious violations of the First Amendment in The Bar’s effort to punish a man who has helped clean up the Broward judiciary cesspool, the Florida Supreme Court in Bar v. Brake, 767 So. 2d. 1163 (Fla. 2000) held that a lawyer cannot be disciplined for such things unless he is representing a client in a case—in other words, unless he is practicing law while engaged in such activity. Now The Bar’s assault has hit the media fan, as three other South Florida law blogs are publicly standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Gelin. You were warned this would happen; it is only going to get worse for The Bar. Here is the inevitable scenario: Either The Bar is going to abide by the First Amendment, OR when it whacks Mr. Gelin then the salutary wrath of all sorts of defenders of the First Amendment is going to descend upon The Bar. A federal court will undo what The Bar has done, especially if Mr. Gelin avoids any Rooker-Feldman abstention problem by filing his federal suit now. You will, as an aside, also have to discipline the anonymous lawyer who calls himself "Rumpole" and who runs the Miami-based Justice Building Blog, whose comments about judges (including then Chief Judge Brown) far exceed any comments about judges Gelin has published. End result: The Bar’s speech codes will be declared unconstitutional. It’s not even a close call. But you have Bar staff prosecutors who never even practiced law holding the Sword of Damocles over Gelin and others. They do not know that through such dangerous silliness it is The Bar’s head that will be cut off. US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas predicted that eventually integrated state bars would become "goose-stepping brigades" bent upon destroying whistle-blowing, nonconformist attorneys. You have made yourself the Eva Braun of The Florida Bar. The happy result for me, in all this, is that my disbarment for engaging in First Amendment speech about judges and pornographers disseminating adult entertainment to kids, which speech was uttered while not practicing law on behalf of a client (see Brake), will be overturned when a federal court that reviews what you are doing in all these regards voids your indefensible , unconstitutional speech codes. You personally have pushed the idea that an "independent judiciary" means total insulation from citizens’ truthful comments about their corruption, ineptitude, and cronyism. For three hundred years, however, it has been understood by those who actually read the Constitution that independent lawyers are more important than an independent judiciary. The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors clearly could not presently pass a Constitutional law class; they are failing this important test. So, go ahead: Make my day. Stay the course against Mr. Gelin. I will be the beneficiary of such Nazi-like stupidity, for when the dust settles and The Bar has its head handed to it, I’ll then be practicing law again by virtue of the striking down of the very same lawyer speech codes that treat as criminal libel whistle-blowing by lawyers who are simply warning the public that judicial nitwits are on the loose. The reign of terror by The Florida Bar’s speech police is about to end, thanks to you and the other thugs who are The Bar’s own worst enemies. Appreciatively, Jack Thompson

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    John B. Thompson, J.D., M.A. 5721 Riviera Drive Coral Gables, Florida 33146 305-666-4366 amendmentone@comcast.

    net
    May 23, 2013 Gwynne Young President, The Florida Bar Tampa, Florida Via Fax to 813.229.4133 and gyoung@carltonfields.com Re: The Florida Bar v. William J. Gelin, FB#490229 Dear Bar President Young: More than a week ago, before the matter became public, I wrote you and urged The Bar to desist from enforcing its clearly unconstitutional speech codes against Broward County attorney Bill Gelin for comments he posted on his public-spirited law blog. Besides The Bars obvious violations of the First Amendment in The Bars effort to punish a man who has helped clean up the Broward judiciary cesspool, the Florida Supreme Court in Bar v. Brake, 767 So. 2d. 1163 (Fla. 2000) held that a lawyer cannot be disciplined for such things unless he is representing a client in a case in other words, unless he is practicing law while engaged in such activity. Now The Bars assault has hit the media fan, as three other South Florida law blogs are publicly standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Gelin. You were warned this would happen; it is only going to get worse for The Bar. Here is the inevitable scenario: Either The Bar is going to abide by the First Amendment, OR when it whacks Mr. Gelin then the salutary wrath of all sorts of defenders of the First Amendment is going to descend upon The Bar. A federal court will undo what The Bar has done, especially if Mr. Gelin avoids any Rooker-Feldman abstention problem by filing his federal suit now. You will, as an aside, also have to discipline the anonymous lawyer who calls himself Rumpole and who runs the Miami-based Justice Building Blog, whose comments about judges (including then Chief Judge Brown) far exceed any comments about judges Gelin has published. End result: The Bars speech codes will be declared unconstitutional. Its not even a close call. But you have Bar staff prosecutors who never even practiced law holding the Sword of Damocles over Gelin and others. They do not know that through such dangerous silliness it is The Bars head that will be cut off.

    US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas predicted that eventually integrated state bars would become goose-stepping brigades bent upon destroying whistle-blowing, nonconformist attorneys. You have made yourself the Eva Braun of The Florida Bar. The happy result for me, in all this, is that my disbarment for engaging in First Amendment speech about judges and pornographers disseminating adult entertainment to kids, which speech was uttered while not practicing law on behalf of a client (see Brake), will be overturned when a federal court that reviews what you are doing in all these regards voids your indefensible , unconstitutional speech codes. You personally have pushed the idea that an independent judiciary means total insulation from citizens truthful comments about their corruption, ineptitude, and cronyism. For three hundred years, however, it has been understood by those who actually read the Constitution that independent lawyers are more important than an independent judiciary. The Florida Bars Board of Governors clearly could not presently pass a Constitutional law class; they are failing this important test. So, go ahead: Make my day. Stay the course against Mr. Gelin. I will be the beneficiary of such Nazi-like stupidity, for when the dust settles and The Bar has its head handed to it, Ill then be practicing law again by virtue of the striking down of the very same lawyer speech codes that treat as criminal libel whistle-blowing by lawyers who are simply warning the public that judicial nitwits are on the loose. The reign of terror by The Florida Bars speech police is about to end, thanks to you and the other thugs who are The Bars own worst enemies. Appreciatively, Jack Thompson Copy: Professor Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law School Norm Kent, Bill Gelin PS: The American Bar Association in 1992 issued its McKay Commission Report which cited as fatally flawed The Florida Bars disciplinary structure which allows Bar Governors to participate in the lawyer disciplinary process. The Bar has had twenty years to jettison this fatal flaw. It will prove The Bars undoing.

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