Florida Supreme Court rules lawyers are not entitled to Freedom of Speech
At least when it comes to firm mascots.
The reason why the court scoured law books and the Internet for precedents, having none of its own, had nothing to do with injury to a person or another animal. The harm in question was only to the dignity of the legal profession, which obviously takes itself much too seriously.
The real harm, however, was to the First Amendment, which was diminished when the court ordered two Fort Lauderdale lawyers to be reprimanded and attend the Florida Bar's goody-two-shoes advertising workshop. Their offense was an advertisement featuring a pit bull with a spiked collar and their telephone number, 1-800-PIT-BULL.
A referee found that the ad harmlessly symbolized "loyalty, persistence, tenacity and aggressiveness," and that to censor it would infringe upon the lawyers' freedom of speech. But the court concluded that those were "a charitable set of associations that ignores the darker side of the qualities often also associated with pit bulls: malevolence, viciousness, and unpredictability."
If it were to uphold the referee's recommendations, the court fretted, "images of sharks, wolves, crocodiles and and piranhas could follow."
And this would be bad... why? Jack Thompson still has a license to practice law in Florida (though his pro hac vice status in Alabama has been brutally revoked), but a single firm with a pit bull for a mascot is harmful enough to the legal profession to justify overriding the First Amendment. Nice to know Florida has its priorities straight.
Fortunately, these are lawyers who are being denied a Constitutional right for no other reason than offended vanity, so they will certainly be filing a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court, if they haven't already.
The reason why the court scoured law books and the Internet for precedents, having none of its own, had nothing to do with injury to a person or another animal. The harm in question was only to the dignity of the legal profession, which obviously takes itself much too seriously.
The real harm, however, was to the First Amendment, which was diminished when the court ordered two Fort Lauderdale lawyers to be reprimanded and attend the Florida Bar's goody-two-shoes advertising workshop. Their offense was an advertisement featuring a pit bull with a spiked collar and their telephone number, 1-800-PIT-BULL.
A referee found that the ad harmlessly symbolized "loyalty, persistence, tenacity and aggressiveness," and that to censor it would infringe upon the lawyers' freedom of speech. But the court concluded that those were "a charitable set of associations that ignores the darker side of the qualities often also associated with pit bulls: malevolence, viciousness, and unpredictability."
If it were to uphold the referee's recommendations, the court fretted, "images of sharks, wolves, crocodiles and and piranhas could follow."
And this would be bad... why? Jack Thompson still has a license to practice law in Florida (though his pro hac vice status in Alabama has been brutally revoked), but a single firm with a pit bull for a mascot is harmful enough to the legal profession to justify overriding the First Amendment. Nice to know Florida has its priorities straight.
Fortunately, these are lawyers who are being denied a Constitutional right for no other reason than offended vanity, so they will certainly be filing a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court, if they haven't already.