We Lost the Rule of Law in Florida and I Got Disbarred for Saying So.
 
In Israel, the only middle east democracy, a judicial overhaul plan is back in motion despite almost causing civil war. Israel’s politicians want to take the power to appoint judges from independent commissions who historically choose those who best exemplify the characteristics of a judge. The streets filled with Israelis fighting to protect democracy and the rule of law.
 
A judge is not a politician. A judge is an umpire, charged with enforcing the law as written, who takes a solemn oath to protect inalienable and constitutional rights. Since biblical times, great injustices resulted from Judges who violated their oath to hold the line true between rich and poor, truth and dishonesty, and right and wrong.
 
Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines corruption as “dishonest and illegal behavior, especially by powerful people and government officers.” “A Most Disorderly Court” by Martin Dykman, tells how in the 1970s, future Florida Governor Lawton Chiles helped remove Florida Supreme Court Justices who “embodied the old order, symbolized by conservatism, racism, and indifference to corruption.” In the 1990s, “Operation Court Broom” swept out more corrupt judges in Miami, leading Florida to create independent commissions to select Judges with integrity.
 
Judges honestly called balls and strikes, protected democracy, and jealously guarded the rule of law. A decade later, Governor Jeb Bush threatened the Florida Bar Board of Governors with moving lawyer discipline to the Department of Professional Regulation. The Bar instead agreed the Governor could control judicial nominating commissions that select and appoint judges.
 
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board wrote “Florida’s highest courts are now effectively the judicial arm of the Republican Party. Not so long ago, they were esteemed for their independence.” Former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justices Peggy A. Quince and Barbara Pariente have both written extensively on this “perversion” that “threatens the rule of law” in Florida.
 
Justice Quince sounded the alarm that Governor Ron DeSantis has Federalist Society members choose Federalist Society members to flood the judiciary, which is bad for democracy. The Washington Post just wrote how Governor DeSantis and the Federalist Society “flipped” the Florida Supreme Court using secret panels and powerful lawyers from Gunster, like Joe Jacquot.
                      
Before becoming general counsel to Governor DeSantis, Mr. Jacquot represented Lender Processing Services (“LPS”), who federal and state investigators had targeted after the Florida Attorney General’s Office exposed LPS sold false and fictitious “MERS mortgage assignments” to fraudulently foreclose on millions of homeowners. Before working for LPS, Mr. Jacquot was the Chief of Staff for the Florida Attorney General’s Office that exposed the robo-signing scandal orchestrated by LPS that led to the $25 Billion National Mortgage Settlement.
 
Florida needs a federal investigation into the Florida Supreme Court and the Third District Court of appeals right now. For speaking that truth, after 25 years of prosecuting criminal and civil frauds, I am now a disbarred attorney. Many state and federal judges helped me expose judicial corruption and systemic perjury, forgery, and felony documentary stamp tax evasion, still happening in foreclosures despite the $25 Billion National Mortgage Settlement.
 
The Third DCA and the Florida Supreme Court did not protect trial judges who upheld the law or homeowners deprived of their property without due process by fraudulent foreclosures. They protected bank attorneys orchestrating frauds and judges engaged in serious misconduct, far beyond just ignoring fraud in foreclosures.
 
U.S. Supreme Court law says attorney’s speech on matters of public importance, i.e. judicial corruption and fraudulent foreclosures, warrant the “highest rung” of First Amendment protections. Florida Supreme Court judges defied the constitution to disbar a former Miami prosecutor for exposing systemic foreclosure frauds and judicial corruption, saying there is no evidence, when there are receipts.
 
These federalist society judges will hear oral argument on Governor DeSantis’ 6 week abortion ban in September. They will deny a women’s right to choose and ignore the 23rd Amendment to the Florida Constitution which enshrines “the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life….”
 
Impeach politicians in robes. Bring back independent commissions. Appoint judges to jealously guard fair and impartial courts. Florida cannot protect democracy or the rule of law without constitutional checks and balances.
 
Bruce Jacobs is a former Miami prosecutor and nationally recognized foreclosure defense attorney. Mr. Jacobs is married with four children, a 25 year member of Chabad of Coconut Grove, and the Scoutmaster of Troop 719 in Coral Gables.  He may be reached at (305) 331-1333 or by email at jacobs@jakelegal.com