On Tuesday, the court issued an order instructing Thompson to explain why the court should not reject future filings entered by Thompson unless those filings are signed by another member of the Florida Bar.
The court asserted that Thompson has cluttered the court’s processing system with “abusive” and “meritless filings,” according to the show-cause order issued Tuesday.
“This court is now forced to limit Mr. Thompson’s ability to monopolize this court’s time,” the order said, citing restrictions on court filings from two other cases.
Thompson was warned twice last year to stop filing motions with the court in connection to his disciplinary case, which has been assigned to Miami-Dade Judge Dava Tunis.
A defiant Thompson told reporters this week that “I have a right to file anything I want with the court.”
“It is beyond bizarre that they think they can tell me I can’t seek relief,” Thompson said. “They can deny relief, but they can’t tell me I can’t seek relief.”
Last April, Thompson was warned about his filings after he submitted “pornographic materials” to the court as part of an attempt to initiate disciplinary measures against a rival attorney. Thompson said that he has not filed anything with sexually explicit material since then, but acknowledged that he has filed other documents in that time.
According to the Florida Supreme Court, Thompson has filed more than 46 items that have been dismissed, denied or forwarded to the judge handling his disciplinary case. The court described his latest filings as repetitive and frivolous, adding that the filings “insult the integrity of the court.”
One of Thompson’s recent filings, which he termed a “children’s picture book for adults” combines text with images that he felt compelled to include due to “the court’s inability to comprehend” the arguments he made.
According to the court’s order this week, the images that Thompson filed included “swastikas, kangaroos in court, a reproduced dollar bill, cartoon squirrels, Paul Simon, Paul Newman, Ray Charles, a handprint with the word ‘slap’ written under it, Bar Governor Benedict P. Kuehne, a baby, Ed Bradley, Jack Nicholson, Justice Clarence Thomas, Julius Caesar, monkeys [and] a house of cards.”
Hearings in Thompson’s disciplinary proceedings were held in November, and Tunis has until April 21 to submit her recommendations to the state’s high court. In the meantime, Thompson has said that he plans to file a federal lawsuit against the Florida Bar and the Florida Supreme Court in response to the show-cause order.
Thompson has sued the bar before, alleging infringements on his right to free speech and an attempt to run him out of the legal profession, but Judge Adalberto Jordan dismissed the complaint.
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