I had to get past the holidays first, but yesterday I completed and posted by mail my complaint, as a client, against Florida Attorney General Ashley Brooke Moody to the Florida Bar Association. My problem with her, as her client, is that she on my behalf signed on to Ken Paxton’s petition to the Supreme court to overturn the U.S. Constitution.
My image phrase is derived from the late Evelyn Knoll, whose quirky manner of running the Palace Theater on behalf of Albany (NY) Mayor Erastus Corning was such that she would at times say that if the mayor or the public at some point decided they didn’t like it, “I’ll go sell socks at Macy’s.” That is exactly what I want Moody, Paxton, my ex-congressman Ross Spano, my new congressman Scott Franklin, the other state attorneys general and all of the other senators and representatives with bar memberships to have to do — sell socks for a living.
Here’s my text:
Fullstatement, Case 21-6887
OnDec. 9, 2020, acting as Florida Attorney General, Ms. Moody joined 17other state attorneys general to file a brief to join as plaintiffsin docket filing 20155, which the attorney general of Texas filedagainst Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, asking theU.S. Supreme Court to prevent each of the four states from certifyingits presidential election to vote on Dec. 14, 2020. The Courtunanimously rejected the filing on Dec. 11, 2020 with the reasoningthat the plaintiff(s) had no standing.
Thepetition Ms. Moody signed is a spurious brief,g lacking citations forits cliams of fact, putting forward a ouroborean logic in which astate can use the U.S. Constitution's assignment of rights to stategovernments to intervene and yet argues to negate those rights. Itseeks to disrupt the legal conclusion of the 2020 election and arousepublic animosity for a wide range of public officials including butnot limited to precinct and county election workers. The filingencouraged a climate in which physical threats against publicofficials have included telephone and mail threats, home intrusionsand gun fire. She did this on behalf of the people of Florida, amongothers on my behalf. In doing so, Ms. Moody violated seven of theeight statements in the Oath of Admission to the Florida BarAssociation, and two of the three statements contained in the stateoath for public office holders. She violated her contract with thepeople of Florida, whom she promised campaigning that she would tocontinue her predecessor's practice of participating in purelypolitical actions. She used her office to attempt to overthrow thefederal government. In doing so, she forfeited any claim to practicelaw in this state, or the reciprocity to do so in any of the others.
Iknow the Florida Bar Association has turned a blind eye to thepolitical and Constitutional abuses of its members, but if Ms.Moody's actions don't reflect a tipping point in the other direction,we should let some other state licensed trade – hairdressers,plumbers, massage therapists – police our justice system. Everylicensed attorney in the state should be viewed with the presumptionof dishonor if their licensing body does nothing to weed outsedition, baseless litigation, public conflict of interest,encouraging vigilante violence and using the legal system tovictimize the under-served. People were hurt and promises were brokenin the name of defying the U.S. Constitution. If torts, contracts andthe rule of law are not matters of concern to a bar association, whatgood is it?
Since the three oaths Ms. Moody have broken involve overlapping issues, Iam going to address her abuses organized by the issues themselves,identifying the area of culpability. I will start with theConstitutional issue.
Paxton'ssuit did nothing less than ask a majority of the Supreme Courtjustices, including the three President Trump appointed and believeswill allow him to defy the voters' will, to violate the passages inArticle Two and the 12thAmendment of the U.S. Constitution thatinvolve the election of electors, the president and vice president.It defied Article Four's guarantee that states exhibit full faith andcredit for each others' official acts, and the 10th Amendment rightstates hold to conduct their own elections, and the 11th amendmentprohibiting the federal courts from interfering in state businesswithout extraordinary evidence or reason. It asked the court todeprive citizens of the four states of their 14th and 15thAmendmentrights that they have the same right that their votes be counted aseveryone else.
Thenumber of constitutional strictures Moody actively defies stand incontrast to her attack-dog efforts to curb any activities, all withinthe strictures of the Supreme Court's broad ruling on District ofColumbia v. Heller, that would limit her absolutist view of theSecond Amendment. That gun extremism is more important to her thanthe rule of law, valid elections and a federal republican frameworkof co-existing states would suit her better if she was one of thedroogies in A Clockwork Orange rather than an attorney of law.The danger of this is self-evident. If courts quit protecting a legalsystem and citizens rights, such rights must be re-asserted by force.This is the most extreme action against the Constitution since the 11states seceded in 1861, and represents a worse partisan assault onthe Constitution than when 47 Republican senators sought in 2015 tointerfere with the the Obama administration's negotiations with Iranover nuclear power, than in 1983. when a group of Democratic senatorssought to get the Senate to go on record supporting a nuclear freezein opposition to Reagan's arms negotiations. Or even when a group ofFederalist governors sent emissaries to the United Kingdom seeking ajoint treaty to end the war of 1812 separate from the Madisonadministration.
Everypublic official who signed on to this should lose the ability topractice law in this country. Florida should start this purge withMoody. She vowed to uphold the Constitution both in her oath as amember of the bar, and as a public official. She wasn't simplynegligent. She became what she should have protected us from.
Mostof the arguments that might mitigate the above as a legal disputefall apart because of the source. Filing 20155 is an insult to thelegal process. Its index of case work supporting Supreme Court actiononly included one case involving the 2020 election in one of the fourstates, and in that case the issue only involved the deadlines forreceipt and counting of absentee ballots. That isn't what Paxton'sbrief asserted as a cause for action. He cataloged various nefariousabuses
ofthe receiving, counting and oversight of counting ballots – neverwith citations, and writing in such general terms that he left outthat everything he proposed as fact had specifically been refuted,not simply disputed, but refuted, proven to have no factual basis,even ridiculed by the appropriate judges. Florida's bar oath includethree statements relative to this, that a Florida attorney willexhibit respect for courts of law, will not present deceptivearguments to a judge and will only advance just arguments as aplaintiff or prosecutor.
Welay people understand immediately why these two statements are partof the oath, because the framework that has been created to advancejustice must be respected in order for it to have credibility toevery side of an argument. And this wasn't simply an argument beforesome zoning board or even a county court. Paxton made his argumentbefore the Supreme Court of the United States asking it to forego itsappellate role and act on an initial filing that doesn't refer to anyoutstanding case still before a federal court at any level. It is theheight of disrespect, and joining in that suit puts every Floridianin contempt of the highest court in the land. To do so forfeits theprivilege of representing clients of any type in any court under thehigh court's umbrella.
Thatit is the clients who are parties in litigation creates particularproblems for partisan political legal action. More than 5.2 millionFloridians or just shy of 48 percent per the participating voters inFlorida voted for the Biden-Harris ticket. Article 2 says Trump withhis 5.6 million votes gets all of the state's presidential electors.But the attorney general doesn't represent those 29 electors, or evenjust the roughly 11 million who voted for president. She representseveryone in Florida and she signed on to Paxton's attempt to violateour federal conflict, that my vote won't count toward electoral votesbut that's okay because my the votes of my Trump-supporting relativesin California don't count either. Moody has sued, on my behalf, todisenfranchise me. It is an inherent conflict of interest, not herright at all. That doesn't take into account the corrupt use oftaxpayer money for staff to participate in 20155. It is a tragedy ofFlorida's legal system that it would have to go this far to show thefallacy in attorneys general acting as ambulance chasers for a cadreof unaccountable party leaders.
Thatis what is so maddening about Ms. Moody's pledge not to continuethis. She ran for office in the shadow of Pam Bondi, who actuallyused taxpayer funds to join in a Republican Attorney GeneralsAssociation suit to keep Maryland from using Florida environmentalstandards. Moody said this would stop. Sure, politicians lie all thetime. It is different when you're running for the job of being apeople's lawyer.
Thesethings matter more because of the climate in which they were putforth. Poll workers had already begun to be subjected to harassmentincluding threats of injury or death before Paxton petitioned theSupreme Court. Moody and the others joining him contributed to themost dangerous atmosphere the democratic process has endured in thiscountry ever. Even absent the issue of overthrowing the government,the concept of sedition includes using one's position to encourageviolence. Local and state officials have had to accept body guardsand in some cases go into hiding. This barely falls in the realm ofmetaphor: It is shouting “Fire!” in a crowded building.
Finally,in joining Paxton's petition, Ms. Moody sought to dis-enfranchisedeliberately African-American populations. Paxton sought to simplythrow out the vote for much of Detroit, making the same albeit lessobvious attempts for votes in Philadelphia and Atlanta. He made nobones about selecting the counties with the largest blackpopulations. The reasoning behind the Florida bar oath's statement to“never reject . . . the cause of the defenseless or oppressed”specifically means not to just represent the rich. For a publicofficial, in particular when addressing matters of voting anddemocracy, the definition has to be extended to not deliberatelycontribute to the oppression. For all I know, Texas allows itsattorneys to act as dumb bigots. Florida prohibits this.
Thegoals set forth in 20155 were to take away millions of black votes,particularly in a state that has for nine years waged war on thosesame voters through emergency-district legislation and segregateddrinking water. It is an assault on persons of color at the level of“colored only” water foundtains, of Japanese internment, of polltaxes and tests.
TheFlorida Bar Association will eventually act on this. It might as wellnow, before the stench of it all soils everything it touches. Start with ending AshleyBrooke Moody's ability to practice law. Don't stop there. Go afterthe Congressmen who joined in this on their constituents' behalf. Mycongressman, lame duck Ross Spano, was one of them. I doubt criminalsanctions are possible, or that a jury would administer them if theyare. But the issue here is a professional one. Yours is a professionis supposed to have something beyond a vague interest in the Floridaand U.S. Constitutions. That the bar has failed to police itsadherence to the Constitutions in the past puts the lie to along-held cliché. We are not a nation of laws, not [sic] men.Justice implies a constant balancing, liberty and responsibility,individual and the general good, law and the individual. Rise to it. Individual up.
-Steve Webb