I want to welcome you to our website and tell you a little more about why LawyersAction was started and why you should become an active member.

The attacks on the independence of the judiciary in Florida have escalated at an alarming rate over the last decade.  Legislation has been filed in Florida and moved through various legislative committees that would strip the Supreme Court of its rulemaking authority and repeal merit selection and retention.  Other filed legislation would have stripped the Supreme Court of its Writ authority. 

The legal profession itself standing up for the independence of the judiciary has been threatened with its independence as well.  Legislation has been filed which would have removed the jurisdiction and regulation of lawyers from the Florida Supreme Court to a bureaucratic agency of State government.  
 
These are not idle threats and all of these issues have been pushed by powerful individuals and special interest.  I am convinced that many of these issues can be handled by a comprehensive and aggressive education program that will inform legislators and other elected officials of the historical significance and reasons for the independence of the judiciary.  
      
Throughout our history, America's courts and judges have played an indispensable role in protecting peoples' liberties, security and safety.  
      
By protecting society against those who would break our laws, providing a venue to decide peacefully business and other disputes, and defending basic rights and liberties against encroachment by government, the courts and judges who preside over them have served our country admirably.  This is a proud history, and one of the principle reasons our system of government is an example much of the world seeks to emulate.  Indeed, one of our most profound, conservative politicians, Alexander Hamilton wrote:

"The real danger to our liberties was not from a few provincial troops.  The road to tyranny will be opened by making dependent judges, by  packing juries, by stifling the press, by silencing leaders and patriots. . . . ."

Hamilton then concluded:

"That the most sure, the most fatal of tyrannies was by selecting
 and sacrificing single individuals under the mask and forms of
 the law, by dependent and partial tribunals."

Sadly, when education failed in our endeavor to protect the independence of the judiciary, we must have the political resources to help elect those who will protect the independence of the judiciary and serve notice to those who seek to destroy it that there are a substantial number of Floridians who will stand up and politically fight for the independence of the judiciary. 

That, in essence, is what LawyersAction is all about.  We urge you to join this noble fight.

Kelly Overstreet Johnson
President
LawyersAction PAC