Update from the liberterrain...
The Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) announced Wednesday that it plans to file legal action against a Florida judge who banned free speech on or near his courthouse grounds.
"The jury education group FIJA has retained the legal services of Florida ACLU and Walters Law Group," a media release stated.
After James Cox had successfully built the FIJA Florida chapter into a dynamic literature outreach machine Chief Judge Belvin Perry, Jr. issued an order earlier this month prohibiting leafleting, displaying signs, or engaging in verbal communication with potential jurors on the Orange County Courthouse complex grounds.
His action effectively squelched any discussion of a jury's right to exercise "their Constitutional authority to protect human rights by refusing to enforce bad laws."
Cox responded at the time, "This appears to be an intimidation tactic by a bully."
(See Libertarian News Examiner article, Florida judge bans free speech, assembly, jury rights.)
This week another judge, Andrew Napolitano, added his voice to the defense of human rights when he used his National TV show Freedom Watch on the Fox News Channel to chew out the Florida judge for banning free speech, asking, "has he ever heard of the First Amendment?"
FIJA had immediately advised its activists to steer clear of any confrontations that might get them arrested and announced that their response would be "to shame and embarrass agents of the state by pointing out the contradictions of their own actions."
The Montana-based organization issued a flyer, "We of FIJA seek to obey the law" (pdf) and sent registered letters to Judge Perry and the Governor and Attorney General of Florida questioning the judges right to issue such a ban.
(See Libertarian News Examiner article, Jury rights group challenges judge's unlawful order.)
FIJA encouraged jury rights activists, libertarians and other members of the national freedom movement to send registered copies of the flyer to judge Perry. "Multiple copies sent by registered mail from around Florida and elsewhere would be ideal," a FIJA spokesperson wrote.
Judge Napolitano's remarks on his Freedom Watch program earlier this week were brief but biting, asking "where does this judge presume to get the authority" to overturn the Constitution.
In their media release FIJA expressed confidence that Judge Perry's order against free speech "has no standing before the First Amendment."
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Comments
Sickening. The judge thinks his court is in Afghanistan?
Attempts to destroy the constitution, and terrorizes anyone with threat of imprisonment if ANY speech is attempted in front of public courts.
The problem is there is no downside for this judge. If he loses on this so what? He has successfuly delayed actions by FIJA and others; he has denied them their rights at least temporarily and he gets away with it. now if there were a criminal case against him or even a civil suit against him personally, that might make him and others of his ilk think before they acted in such manner.
How many stories like this have to break before any person who ever gets a petit jury summons already knows, without organizations like FIJA telling him, that he has full authority to nullify the State's case if he thinks that the law is inherently unjust?
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