Sean Conway has agreed to settle his bar case for calling Judge Aleman on the Broward Blog an "evil, unfair witch" for a public reprimand, the Sun-Sentinel has reported here (hat tip Rumpole). When the case was first brought, Fred Haddad, Conway's lawyer, said "If the state court is not sensible enough to dismiss this piece of shit, it will end up in federal court."
And Fred is not happy that Conway settled: "Resolving the case was not my position, and it was not the position that I ever took," Haddad said Tuesday. "However, the lawyer does not make all the decisions." Haddad had said in December that Conway's blog posting was protected speech and that Bar rules restricting attorneys' criticism of judges was overly broad, vague and unconstitutional.
What say you dear readers? Is this the right result? A public reprimand for speaking your mind on a blog? I agree with Haddad on this issue, of course.
Also I reproduce here from the comments section of our last post:
Dear Former Students of Swan,
As a former student and long time friend of Alan Swan, I will be speaking at his memorial service on Saturday (Plymouth Congregational Church in the Grove, 11:30). If you have a good Professor Swan story, I would love to hear from you today or tomorrow. Please feel free to respond to mbarzee@jud11.flcourts.org.
Thank you.
Mary Barzee Flores
The SDFLA Blog is dedicated to providing news and notes regarding federal practice in the Southern District of Florida. The New Times calls the blog "the definitive source on South Florida's federal court system." All tips on court happenings are welcome and will remain anonymous. Please email David Markus at dmarkus@markuslaw.com
I fully support the Bar in this matter. Mr. Conway should thank his lucky stars a public reprimand was all he got. Lawyers need to be heavily regulated and Mr. Conway's personal opinions are outrageous and offend me and are not politically correct. He should be jailed. I for one will be in the front row of the public repirmand cheering our Bar president on.
ReplyDeleteAnd you'd better watch your step Mr. Markus, or you will be next. We don't like everything you say and you would best to remember the Bar can take you down- can take you downtown and will do so unless you bring your public thoughts and speech into line sir.
Good day. For now.
david, i actually read this first on the broward blog which mentioned the newspaper article. then i saw it on rumpole's blog
ReplyDeleteHmm, the Florida Bar vs. the Intertubes. This is not even close to a fair fight. If we can't bring the Bar to the 21st century, can we at least get them somewhere in the early 90s?
ReplyDelete