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Monday, 22 October 2007 11:55
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 Jack Thompson: The Latest Rants
Threatens to File Descriptions of More Gay Porn With Court
Readers’ Note:
Below this column, you will find all the related links.
Commentary By Norm Kent
Only for those of you who have been following this story do I offer you the latest update about the lawyer from legal la la land, the one and only Jack Thompson.
First, even though he has been judicially reprimanded and legally scoffed at from New York to New Zealand for filing gay porn with his pleadings in a federal law suit, Jack says he is going to do it again anyway. No, really.
Now in Jack’s case against the Florida Bar, the judge has already ruled that those images are irrelevant, inconsequential, and immaterial. Therefore, the Court has even barred Jack from submitting written depictions of gay porn, since this case is about a disciplinary proceeding regarding his misconduct, not about links to the insides of other companies’ adult websites.
Jack does not get that. Consequently, what has he done in the last 72 hours since our website’s last commentary?
First, he has issued an ultimatum to Judge Jordan, the sitting jurist, warning him that he has until 5 p.m today to tell him he can’t post descriptions of gay porn, or he will do it again anyway. In effect, Thompson has issued a ‘show cause’ order against the judge. I suspect Thompson will back down and not do it, but we will see later today.
Second, instead of just filing an appeal of the judge’s rulings to a higher court, as he was instructed to do by the Chief Judge, he keeps on filing in the lower court copies of the writs he says he is going to file in the higher court, once again making me and this website a focus of his concern.
As a matter of fact, he has filed in court about five notices of writs he is going to file, amending and correcting each one along the way, explaining to the judge in one pleading that he is being so harassed by “Norm Kent” he can’t concentrate. Then the man actually filed motions to strike his own motions. That is how strained, contorted, and confused his logic is.
Third, he has given a new ultimatum to the US Attorney to arrest me and the judge or else he will “seek appropriate remedies” against the US Attorney to do so. I am sure Mr. Acosta is shaking in his boots as he wakes up on this weekday morning.
Imagine being the most powerful law enforcement officer in the Southern District of the United States of America and waking up to daily threats by Jack Thompson.
Imagine being a United States District Court Judge, appointed by the President, confirmed by the Congress, and reading in the court file a letter from the Plaintiff to the Attorney General and US Senate saying you are a criminal and should be impeached.
In retrospect, I should not be so upset. I am but a small link on Jack Thompson’s chain. Years ago, a legal newspaper once asked of Jack Thompson in a headline: “Is this Man too Crazy to Practice Law?” I do not have to comment on that question.
With each new pleading Thompson files in this case, he answers the question in the court’s public access system and for millions on the web to see every day.
I took a quick glance at the judge’s order from October 15, which led to our article, ‘Thompson Floored Again.’
I noticed the court ruled that Thompson had to cease and desist from filing ‘Notices to the Court,’ which were legally improper and violated the rules of practice. He could care less. Since that date, Thompson has filed twelve, count ‘em, twelve notices to the court in direct violation of the judge’s order.
On that same date, the judge denied five separate motions to recuse, advising Thompson they were redundant, duplicative, and just because the court did not rule his way was no grounds for the judge to remove himself from the case. Since that order, Thompson has filed four more motions to disqualify the same judge.
In the past week, he has filed with the court copies of articles written about him in the Express Gay News, Daily Business Review, and the National Gay News and on Law.com. He might as well file copies of his wife’s shopping list at Publix. (In fact, he may have.) They have no bearing on the case, present no legal authority, and are entirely inconsequential and irrelevant. But that does not stop Jack.
In that same order, the judge struck a request by Thompson to add me and the Florida Bar as a defendant, ruling rather declaratively I was not a part of the case. The Court also denied as ridiculous the request that he tell the US Attorney to prosecute me for the ‘obscenity’ which Thompson placed in the court file, on his own, from his home computer, sitting in a house that I suppose he shares with his 15 year old son.
Nevertheless, Thompson has renewed the request that I be prosecuted, that the Court discipline me and reprimand the Florida Bar, about five times collectively. And as I noted above, Thompson issued ultimatums to the US Attorney.
What part of ‘No’ does this guy not understand?
This case is in the hands of Judge Jordan, on the Florida Bar’s motions to dismiss. This week, I suspect the Court will make its final rulings on the merits of Thompson’s complaint, and those issues raised within the four corners of it. The case will not turn on the boys graphically pictured making out at some obscure gay website Jack spent his free time looking at. All that Jack Thompson stunt accomplished was to give bloggers anywhere a chance to comment on his follies everywhere.
I suspect that the Court will ultimately dismiss with prejudice all of Jack’s claims, even if his complaint gets past the motion to dismiss. He has tried to allege the Florida Bar is engaged in bad faith, selective prosecution, has inhibited his free speech rights, and sought injunctive relief.
Unfortunately, his claims are specious, his argument premature, and pleadings chaotic and rambling. Inartfully drawn, seemingly histrionic, and repeatedly self-aggrandizing, they will not withstand close judicial scrutiny. That is my legal prediction, but I am no prophet. Indeed, three times now they have already been dismissed.
Besides, despite a misleading article in the legal review today, this Bar proceeding is not just about allegedly criticizing judges and a lawyer’s free speech rights. The charges against Thompson include outrageous and egregious violations of the code of professional conduct, including lying, deceit, and corrupting the administration of justice.
Were Thompson’s conduct more innocent, or his claims more professionally prepared, he might have helped forge new law. In some respects, the rules of Bar associations throughout the nation inhibit free speech rights of attorneys. In some states, skilled advocates have successfully challenged the limitations by regulatory agencies on their first amendment protections. But Thompson’s serious problems do not make this a good test case.
This week he has noted that he is going to the Eleventh District Court of Appeal to appeal the District Court’s ruling, though the District Court has not yet ruled. So that too, is legally premature and likely to be dismissed. He has asked the District Court to delay its ruling so he can appeal, but there is no good reason for the court to do that.
There is no telling what pleading is coming next, other than that this article will be inevitably attached to some filing, irrelevant though it is to Thompson’s case or claims. And perhaps once again www.nationalgaynews.com will earn a link to a federal pleading we do not deserve.
Ironically, by trying to be so relevant, Jack Thompson has only succeeded in making himself totally irrelevant. One day, the world will treat him as such.
Related Links About Jack Thompson
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