RULE ...SHMULE

When we last left Jack Thomson, Esq., he was hard at battle with the Florida Bar, Florida Supreme Court, Judge Tunis, and the video game industry.

The Florida Supreme Court filed a rule to show cause as to why Mr. Thompson should not be held in contempt for his frequent filings in the Supreme Court, many of which have been posted in the comments section of this blog.

Now we received this.....remarkable document. "Remarkable" is truly the only word for this pleading. Let us just say this: no matter how hard we fight in court for clients, there comes a time when even we cut our losses. Not so Mr. Thompson. He has taken the Florida Supreme Court's Rule to Show Cause and quite literally torn in up and tossed the pieces in their faces.

We would never have been so..... brave (we recognize other adjectives may well apply here.) Our copy of the pleading came e-mailed with a picture of a rabbit in a briar patch. One can only wonder if the original pleading was similarly adorned:

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
THE FLORIDA BAR,

Complainant,

v. Case Numbers SC 07 - 80 and 07- 354

JOHN B. THOMPSON,

Respondent.

RESPONDENT’S PRELIMINARY RESPONSE TO SUPREME COURT’S
ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE

Comes now respondent John B. Thompson (Thompson) and provides this court with a preliminary response to its show cause order of February 19, 2008, with a more detailed response to follow prior to the court’s March 5 deadline, noting:
Thompson deeply appreciates, more than this court could ever know, its show cause order as it opens the door to Thompson’s seeking and receiving relief from the federal courts.
The federal court system dismissed Thompson’s prior suit on abstention grounds, stating that Thompson had an “adequate state remedy” to seek redress for any infringement of rights by The Bar and by this Supreme Court that is supposed to oversee and remedy the misdeeds of The Bar.
This court’s panicked threat against Thompson, apparently stemming in part from the court’s having been caught by Thompson not complying with Florida Statute 876.05 (Loyalty Oath Law), has wonderfully proven not just that Thompson has no “adequate state remedy” but that he has no state remedy at all. This court threatens Thompson if he even files this pleading. This is a brazen attempt by this court to repeal the absolute right of every citizen, under the First Amendment, to “petition the government for a redress” of grievances.
This court’s misstep exquisitely proves his point to a federal tribunal that it no more understands the First Amendment than it understands the legal and constitutional issues on which it was so grandly reversed in Bush v. Gore.
Thompson has Fifth, Sixth, Fourteenth, and First Amendment rights that this court’s show cause order wildly infringes upon. Thompson has a right to represent himself in traffic court and before this court. Thompson is a competent lawyer with 31 years of continuous good standing within The Bar who has a string of victories against powerful corporate interests—the very interests who filed these SLAPP Bar complaints.
Ted Bundy, for Heaven’s sake, was not even a lawyer, and yet he was allowed to represent himself in this state within its courts. Thompson, who has committed no crime but whose “sin” is that he has waged a successful campaign against the very porn industry that helped train Bundy to kill, is being petulantly threatened by this court that he is to be muzzled and denied access to this state court. Nonsense.
US Supreme Court Justice Douglas in Lathrop v. Donohue warned that integrated state bars would eventually become “goose-stepping brigades.” This court has confirmed that those brigade are now here in this state and that this court is brazenly leading them. This court is free to enter a show cause order against the ghosts of Justices Douglas and of all the US Supreme Court Justices who handed down Keller v. State Bar of California
if it likes. Even King Canute knew he could not order the tide not to come in.
All this court with its panicked show cause threat has accomplished is handed Thompson the keys to the federal courthouse. Abstention is out the window, thanks to this High Court.
What “adequate state remedy” does any citizen have, let alone a lawyer have, when the very court that has negligently failed to oversee The Bar threatens a whistleblower with retribution because he dares to keep blowing the whistle?
This court has threatened Thompson. He does not threaten back. He hereby informs this court that he will see it in federal court. This court has just thrown Brer Rabbit into the briar patch.
Thank you so very, very much.
I HEREBY CERTIFY that this has been provided this February 20 2008, to Bar staff counsel Sheila Tuma, to Kenneth Marvin, Director of Lawyer Regulation for The Bar, to Dava Tunis, and to all Bar Governors as well as to Bar President Frank Angones.

JOHN B. THOMPSON, Attorney
Florida Bar #231665
1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366