Proposal to start fixing loyalty oath problem in Florida
Bob Hurt
To: Charlie Crist, Florida Governor
From: Bob Hurt,
2460 Persian Drive #70, Clearwater, FL 33763, (727) 669-5511
bob at bobhurt.com
Subj: Loyalty oaths for appointment candidates
Dear Governor Charlie:
Properly swearing The loyalty oath has more importance than any other act of government. Over the past couple of years I have researched loyalty oaths in Florida. I published my findings and recommendations here:
If you have any questions or want to discuss the issue, please don't hesitate to call or write to me.
I write because I want to find out what procedure you use to appoint judges, and I therefore ask that you send me an explication or on-line resource where I can read the procedure.
I ask because I suspect you do NOT obey the law in making appointments, and I want to encourage you to refine your appointment process so it complies with the law.
In particular, following laws explain the loyalty oath requirements for state public officers:
Article VI Clause 3 of the Constitution for the USA
Title 4 Sections 101 and 102 of United States Code
Article II Section 5(b) of the Florida Constitution
Florida Statutes 876.05-10 and 105.031
These explain the minimum qualifications for elected and appointed officials. Candidates for elected and appointed positions MUST swear a NEW loyalty oath under 876.05 and comply with the other requirements of 105.031. Specifically, the candidates must swear the loyalty oaths in the presence, sight, and hearing of an acknowledging officer like a notary public who must then sign and seal an attestation of having witnessed the swearing.
I believe they do not do this currently. Because of my complaints to counsel at OSCA and the State Department, the State Department last summer put back on the election-related documents the jurats they had erroneously removed in the year 2000. Apparently some lawyer had wrongly advised them that a Penalty of Perjury statement would suffice and the jurat had no value or merit. They forgot that We People wouldn't trust out grandmothers to govern us unless they swore before a trusted official an oath to defend our rights guaranteed by the constitutions.
Let us be frank, Governor. Most people rightly don't trust people in power, particularly judges who have armed sheriffs and marshals to back up their often whimsical, flippant, arrogant, unlawful rulings. The hapless litigants, particularly pro se litigants, who appear before Florida judges quickly learn what it feels like to function under a judicial oligarchy. Judges get away with all manner of crimes because of the gargantuan effort required to expose their crimes and bring them to justice. Their brothers in robes protect them.
In other words, many with power in government do not obey their constitutional oaths, and they use government power and lack of public scrutiny to violate the very rights their oaths require them to defend and protect.
One reason they might not obey their oaths: they never swore them properly to begin with, and so nobody can hold them accountable. They did not swear them properly, and so they don' validly hold office, not even as de facto officers.
They might refuse to obey loyalty oath laws simply because of an accident - they assume the State Department put the correct election forms its web site. However, we know now from experience that the State Department can make egregious errors in this regard. For 8 years the election forms on the site had missing jurats, and nobody seems to know who ordered it.
Now, let us give attention to you and your obligations under the law to appoint judges (such as to the District Courts of Appeal).
I believe you do not require those judges to swear new loyalty oaths BEFORE you appoint them, even though 876.05 and 105.031 seem to require it.
I write to ask you whether your appointments staff follows a procedure that makes absolutely sure that the judicial appointment candidate has fulfilled all requirements for judges, such as these:
1. Elector's oath and Voter's Registration - IS the candidate actually a registered voter? How do you know? Does your staff have a certified copy of the voter registration form and elector oath in hand to prove it? If not, why not?
2. Bar Membership - has the candidate enjoyed bar membership in good standing for 5 contiguous years as required by law?
3. Has the candidate sworn a bar oath?
4. Has the candidate newly sworn the pre-candidate loyalty oath required by 876.05?
5. Hss the candidate newly sworn the Candidate oath of 105.031?
6. Has the candidate submitted a financial statement?
If your procedure does not require your appointment staff to look at these credential documents with their own eyes (meaning the candidate must acquire or execute and submit them), then you do not really know whether the candidate has qualified, and you fail in YOUR duty if the candidate has failed.
In addition to the above, the appointee must have the following documents in order and PROVE they are in order to the personnel manager of the judicial venue to which you assign the appointee:
1. Newly sworn (at the beginning of each term) Public officer's oath required by US & Florida constitutions AND 4 USC 101 and 102 (must be notarized).
2. Appointee's written acceptance of office.
3. Newly sworn (at the beginning of each term BEFORE performing duties or accepting compensation)Public employee's loyalty oath required by 876.05-10.
4. The newly provided financial statement at the beginning of each term
TECHNICALLY, the personnel manager must discharge any judge who fails to swear the oath of #3 above, and the failure to discharge such a judge constitutes a 2nd degree misdemeanor.
And of course, there is the matter of returning compensation to the CFO for compensation received while not validly holding office. I feel certain you will not require that, but technically, you should, even of Jeb Bush, who NEVER validly held office because he never signed any valid loyalty oath before a notary who acknowledged it.
Now, Governor, I know you will not do the "right" thing in that regard because you also are a perpetrator - you did not properly qualify for your 2nd AG term, or for governorship because you did not get your candidate oath or pre-candidate loyalty oath notarized. Technically that makes you guilty RIGHT NOW of violations of Florida Statutes 837.012, 839.18, and 843.0855 (two misdemeanors and a felony). Technically you should have been sentenced to fines and jail terms, just as many others have for scoffing at the law (and who should know it better than the Attorney General and Governor. Let us not forget that the State Department's removal of the Jurat from election documents HAPPENED ON YOUR WATCH, and you did nothing to prevent it or alert the public about it.
But, assuming bygones will remain bygones, at least you can do something about the future, and you can set things aright now by instituting proper procedures and trying to make a show of good faith.
Therefore, I encourage you to order all judges and justices throughout the state to stand for new election and new appointment because none of them (that I know of) had valid candidacy requirements in place prior to election or appointment for the current term.
I also encourage you to order the Secretary of State to work with all human resource departments in all judicial and other venues to draft procedures and credentials checklists for elected and appointed officials, and to require that the personnel officers sign the checklist and attached employment authorization under penalties of perjury PRIOR to allowing the official to perform duties or collect pay.
If you do those things, you will thereby improve our quality of government and begin to restore the confidence I and many others have lost in your integrity.
Thanks,
Bob Hurt.