Jack Thompson Disbarred Permanently [Updated, Thompson Responds]

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The legal career of anti-game crusader Jack Thompson is to come to an end.

It was previously reported that Thompson was recommended a ten-year "enhanced disbarment" from the Florida Bar in connection to his 27 guilty counts of misconduct. It turns out that the recommendation was later upgraded by the Bar to full-blown permanent disbarment and the court presiding over Thompson's case concurred, according to Kotaku.

Thompson now has thirty days to close out his practice--in "the interests of existing clients." Adding to his problems, "no motion for rehearing will be considered unless signed by a member in good standing of The Florida Bar other than [Thompson]." That is, if Thompson wants to seek a retrial, he has to have another Bar member vouch for him--something no one has done in his current trial.

Thompson has responded to the disbarment by filing a motion for rehearing--despite the legal inefficacy of doing so without another Bar member to do it on his behalf. In a news release on Kotaku, Thompson has taken to writing Boston Legal fan-fiction:

The timing of this disbarment transparently reveals its motivation: This past Friday Thompson filed a federal civil rights action against The Bar, the Supreme Court, and all seven of its Justices. This rush to disbarment is in retribution for the filing of that federal suit. With enemies this foolish, Thompson needs only the loyal friends he has. ...

Thompson always wanted to own a Bar. Now, armed with multiple US Supreme Court rulings that no state bar can do what it has done to Thompson, he is set to own that Bar.

Reproduced on Shacknews are Thompson's disbarment ruling and his motion for retrial. Thompson's full press release, also reproduced from Kotaku, follows.

Miami attorney Jack Thompson, nationally and internationally known by virtue of his effective and successful opposition over the last 20 years to the broadcast, marketing, and sale of adult-rated entertainment to children, has just been informed by the Florida Supreme Court that he has been disbarred from the practice of law today.

This disbarment is in retaliation, among other things, for Thompson's Tyndale House book Out of Harm's Way, published in 2005, which blew the whistle on the Florida Supreme Court's earlier efforts in the 1990's to literally pathologize his faith-based and successful activism against the American entertainment industry. The Florida Bar's insurance carrier was forced to pay Thompson money damages for that earlier assault upon his First Amendment rights, which is the only known payment of damages by any state bar to any lawyer for improper disciplinary efforts. It appears that the State of Florida will be paying Thompson more damages this time around for its illegal, now repeated, use of "discipline" to punish a Christian lawyer for his activism in the public square.

The timing of this disbarment transparently reveals its motivation: This past Friday Thompson filed a federal civil rights action against The Bar, the Supreme Court, and all seven of its Justices. This rush to disbarment is in retribution for the filing of that federal suit. With enemies this foolish, Thompson needs only the loyal friends he has.

Thompson looks forward to successfully litigating his federal claims, now before US District Court Judge Marcia Cooke in the Southern District of Florida.

Thompson always wanted to own a Bar. Now, armed with multiple US Supreme Court rulings that no state bar can do what it has done to Thompson, he is set to own that Bar.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 25, 2008 10:14 AM

    Game. Blouses.

    • reply
      September 25, 2008 10:51 AM

      Who wants pancakes? :D

    • reply
      September 25, 2008 2:03 PM

      Cocaine's a hell of a drug.

    • reply
      September 25, 2008 3:54 PM

      How I look puttin' my feet on someone's couch!?
      Yeah, I remember puttin' my feet on they couch...

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