The Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled this month that conservative attorney Chris Crowley, a decorated Gulf War veteran who ran for a state attorney position in Florida, should not have been disciplined by the Florida Bar for exercising political speech. During his campaign, Crowley referred to his opponent Amira D. Fox, who eventually won the race for the state attorney’s office in Florida’s 20th Judicial Circuit, as “corrupt” and “swampy,” and observed that she had “close family ties to the PLO terrorist organization.” One of his political mailers stated that “she won’t answer questions about Sharia Law. Why?”
Fox’s father, Taher Dajani, wrote a book in 2008 that was sympathetic to the PLO. In “From Palestine to America: A Memoir,” he described how his brother, Sidqi, served on the PLO executive committee at various times throughout the 1980s. The book was dedicated to his daughters. Former Trump advisor Roger Stone posted on Facebook during the race that he was appearing at a campaign event with Crowley to expose Fox, “whose real name is Amira Dajana and whose family founded the PLO.”
Crowley’s criticism of Fox was also based on her unethical behavior. An investigation found that “Fox campaigned during working hours,” and she admitted, “that she was required to repay $1,458.00 to the State after receiving pay for time exceeding her allowed leave after human resources raised the issue of her overpayment.”
The Florida Bar sought to suspend Crowley’s license to practice law for 60 days. Florida Bar ethics rules prohibit attorneys from making statements “the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity” of candidates running for office, elected officials and judges.
However, the state’s highest court cited Supreme Court law which held that “speech about public issues and the qualifications of candidates for elected office commands the highest level of First Amendment protection.” Additionally, “The First Amendment has its fullest and most urgent application to speech uttered during a campaign for political office.”
The court smacked down the Florida Bar’s gross overreach. “To the extent the Bar suggests that it can broadly regulate attorney speech because licensure is a conditional privilege, it is wrong,” the justices said in a footnote. “The First Amendment does not afford lesser protection simply because the speech is uttered by an attorney.” The court said the Florida Bar had no “compelling interest” to restrict Crowley’s free speech.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Carlos Muñiz, who previously served as deputy general counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush, suggested that further steps need to be taken. He recommended, “At a minimum, this case should prompt our Court and the Bar to consider whether to amend the rule as a matter of good government and to account for evolving First Amendment jurisprudence.” Two other justices joined in his concurrence.
State bars have come under fire for targeting conservative attorneys. They are controlled by the Left, including progressive activists. The State Bar of Arizona zealously went after conservative election attorneys, and recently disbarred conservative attorney Vlad Gagic for criticizing RINO Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell (Mitchell represented the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors twice, asking for sanctions against Kari Lake and her attorneys over her election lawsuits). Gagic, who practiced criminal defense, believed one of his clients was innocent but wrongly sentenced to prison, and was said to be furious that Mitchell would not reconsider the prosecution.
Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas was disbarred in 2012 after criticizing judges. Thomas helped draft a successful referendum in 2006 to prohibit bail for illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes. It passed with over 70 percent voter approval, but judges on the Maricopa County Superior Court circulated a memo among themselves with instructions not to enforce it. Thomas held a press conference denouncing the corruption, and so the State Bar of Arizona pursued charges against him.
Trump’s former attorney John Eastman was disbarred in California in part for stating that dead people voted in the 2020 election. This was unjust, he said, because election officials in Michigan admitted that 1,500 votes were cast in the names of dead people—the officials merely disagreed that the number was higher. After Eastman pointed that out, he said the bar attorneys changed their accusation to state that 1,500 wasn’t enough to change the election results.
Another former Trump attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C., largely for stating that Fulton County election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss committed crimes during the 2020 election. The pair were seen on video pulling out pallets of ballots, which Giuliani alleged were illegally inserted into the election.
However, due to the Trump administration’s concern that fraud could have occurred, the DOJ is investigating the incident. In January, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Fulton County election office and seized 600–656 boxes containing original ballots, ballot images, tabulator tapes, voter-roll records, and other 2020 election materials.
How can these state bar abuses be stopped? The courts are still stacked with leftist judges. The Supreme Court only accepts about 80 cases each year, and has likely never accepted a case involving a conservative attorney wrongly targeted by a state bar. Efforts to dismantle the mandatory nature of state bars have failed. Not all states have honest judges like the Florida Supreme Court.
The Trump administration has started some tentative efforts in this area, suing the D.C. Bar in May for going after Trump’s conservative federal attorneys. I believe what also needs to happen is to get conservatives heavily involved in state bar leadership, including on staff. Most state bars allow a non- attorney or two to sit on their board of governors. Until this happens, the abuses will continue.
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