Don't take my word for it -- this just in: three months ago, State Attorney General Bill McCollum has opined that local governments can't create their own misdemeanors. That's exactly what our City of St. Augustine did last Monday in passing its latest artist suppression ordinance after a seven hour meeting.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said this was the "most lawless" city in America.
Reading the AG's opinion (below) reminds us that this is still true today.
The artist suppression ordinance creates penalties pursuant to St. Augustine City COde Section 1-8.
The artist suppression ordinance allows jailings up to six months.
How many visual artists, entertainers and other Americans have been illegally jailed by the Jim Crow style government of the City of St. Augustine?
How many lawyers does this City have working for it on this ordinance? (three).
How many lawyers serve on the City Commission? (two more).
How many of these lawyers voted against the ordinance (none).
How many of these lawyers quoted the State Attorney General's opinion?
How many times does the City of St. Augustine go to federal court and lose on First Amendment issues and then resolve to continue what it's doing? (Too many times to keep track).
As Bill Clinton said, "the definition of insanity is doing the same 'ole things and expecting different results."
Every single one of the people arrested on bogus misdemeanor warrants pursuant to City COde Section 1-8 and progeny should: (a) consider seeking legal advice; (b) sue the City of St. Augustine, hiring skilled civil rights litigators, and (c) seek criminal indictments by a federal grand jury.
There has been a massive violtion of civil rights here, and as Bill Clinton said, "a right without a remedy is simply a suggestion."
St. Augustine patriots Roger Jolley and J.D. Pleasant have raised this misdeanor issue persistently for years. They were right. And I salute them.
Read Florida Attorney General McCollum's opinion (below). Then pray for the loss of liberty here in St. Augustine, the Nation's Oldest City -- pray that those who prey on those less powerful will be protected (once again) by federal courts.
For as Justice Justice Hugo Lafayette Black wrote for the United States Supreme Court in 1940, at a time when Nazi military victories were daily headlines, "Under our constitutional system, courts stand against any winds that blow as havens of refuge for those who might otherwise suffer because they are helpless, weak, outnumbered, or because they are nonconforming victims of prejudice and public excitement." Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 329 (1940)(reversing death penalties wrongfully inflicted upon four African-Americans in South Florida). As Justice Black wrote in Beuharnis v. Illinois, 343 U.S. 250, 275 (Black, J., dissenting), "the First Amendment, with the Fourteenth Amendment," forbids First Amendment violations by state and local governments "without any 'ifs,' 'buts,' or whereases.'"
FDR appointed Justice Black, who was once a KKK member -- Justice Black recovered from it and have served our Nation admirably.
The same can't be said for those who habitually support unconstitutional ordinances proposed by St. Augustine City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS.
As time goes by, the City Manager has grown meaner and bolder violating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Kudos to AG Bill McCollum, for setting them straight.
Here is the essential point in AG McCollum's opinion:
Section 18, Article I of the Florida Constitution which provides that "[n]o administrative agency, . . . shall impose a sentence of imprisonment, nor shall it impose any other penalty except as provided by law." Section 775.08(2), Florida Statutes, defines the term "misdemeanor," as "any criminal offense that is punishable under the laws of this state, or that would be punishable if committed in this state, by a term of imprisonment in a county correctional facility, except an extended term, not in excess of 1 year." Clearly, a misdemeanor involves a potential sentence of imprisonment and would constitute a penalty. Section 775.08(2) also cautions that "[t]he term 'misdemeanor' shall not mean a conviction for any noncriminal traffic violation of any provision of chapter 316 or any municipal or county ordinance[,]"[1] thus, precluding the application of a misdemeanor charge to a violation of any municipal or county ordinance.
As Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis said it best, dissenting in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928): "The government is the potent omnipresent teacher. For good or ill it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that the end justifies the means -- to declare that the government may commit crimes -- would bring terrible retribution."
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