Florida Supreme Court threatens to hold Jack Thompson in contempt
By Triston McIntyre
Though it might seem like all we do around here is talk about games, systems and the like, I like to think we’re keeping our collective eyes on the big picture of gaming as well. That’s why I’ve been keeping close dibs on Jack Thompson, effectively the enemy numero uno of the gaming industry. In his latest caper, Thompson has effectively pissed off the Supreme Court of Florida enough to mandate he contact them through a lawyer of his own!
That would seem like a slap in the face of a big-shot lawyer like Thompson; however, according to a mandate from the Supreme Court of Florida (as posted by GamePolitics.com), Thompson has repeatedly made a mockery of the courtroom and its judges, and they’ve had enough of it.
You can see the entire mandate here — if you’re looking for the gist, here ’tis. Thompson has been harassing the Supreme Court of Florida by submitting pornographic materials, a “picture book” intended to display Thompson’s argument in caricature form for the court to “better understand” his points, and entering repetitive and insulting “evidences” that the court repeatedly told him not to.
The court was forced to instruct Thompson to direct his submissions to a “referee” who was to evaluate the material before passing it on to a court; Thompson ignored this instruction, and continuously rubbed his opinion into the noses of the members of the court.
All of this is surrounding a BAR disciplinary proceeding that is investigating Thompson himself. Thompson believes the Florida Supreme Court and the BAR are just out to get him and strip him of his license — whether he’s right or not, being held in contempt is a great way to make sure you don’t get what you want.
The court said Thompson has no respect for the institution of the court itself, and “refuses to maintain a minimum standard of decorum and respect for the judicial system to which all litigants, and especially attorneys, must adhere.” The end result is Thompson is being treated like a child, with limited interaction privileges with the court, and is very close to being held in contempt.
Its good to know that the biggest public threat to the gaming industry (in the sense of a singular public figure) is doing whatever he can to get himself stripped of his titles and held in contempt. Perhaps once Thompson is finally discredited as a loony, people will realize that his allegations towards games and the gaming industry are completely baseless.
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March 29th, 2008
Much like other recent historical crackpots (see Dr. Fredric Wertham, Sen Joseph McCarthy, Cindy Sheehan, Michael Crook), after enough flailing their arms around, eventually they piss off the wrong people and fall out of the limelight…and then like flowers without the sun, shrivel up and fade away.