The
Miami Herald, July 6, 1999 Should
Lawyers Run For Non-judicial Office? Ronald Bibace is a Fort Lauderdale
businessman and constitutional scholar. Lawyers who are members of the
Florida Bar are barred legally from running for public office in the executive
and legislative branches. The Constitution prohibits them from running for
mayor, commissions, school board, sheriff, the Legislature or any other elected
office that is not part of the judicial branch of government. This prohibition is not an
"unintended consequence" of the 1949 action by Florida's lawyers. The
prohibition lies at the very heart and the soul of both the Florida and the US
constitutions. Nonlawyer James Madison's
Constitution had one principal goal: to create a government that had sufficient
power to govern, but insufficient power to oppress. To do so, he neutralized
the first four known sources of tyranny, Madison implicitly instituted
the separation-of power principle in the US Constitution. In Florida, Article
II, Section 3, is the explicit state equivalent. Florida lawyers and the judges
have ignored this prohibition. What is true in Florida is also
true all over the land. From this abuse of power by the legal profession, this
nation now suffers from what Madison, Montesquieu, Thomas Jefferson and
Alexander Hamilton called, "the very definition of tyranny." That
tyranny arises when a single "same-hands" group makes the law,
enforces the law and interprets the law. That tyranny, whether or not
perceived, is at the heart of most of the nation's problems in the areas of
crime, education, health, welfare, frivolous lawsuits, devastating divorces and
countless other problems. That is why the people must
correct the situation by voting all lawyers out of office outside the judicial
branch. Until that occurs, very little substantial and permanent improvement
will occur anywhere. If the situation is not corrected, the nation likely will
go down to chaos, revolution and, perhaps, even civil war in the near future. Further information on this and
other constitutional matters is available at: http://www.constitutionalguardian.com |
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