by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
A Florida Supreme Court justice told law students Thursday that he is concerned about President Bush’s request to expand provisions of the Patriot Act that would allow investigators to bypass grand juries when seeking subpoenas for suspected terrorists.
“President Bush is suggesting by this newspaper article that he wants to forego the requirement for going to a neutral agency, neutral in this case the grand jury, to get subpoenas or to get search requirements out,” Justice Kenneth Bell said at the Florida Coastal School of Law. “As a former judge, that scares me.”
The Washington Post story also said Bush wants investigators to have the authority to withhold bail from suspects and to allow for the death penalty in more cases.
“That is the beauty of the system of checks and balances,” Bell said. “People asked what I appreciated most about being a circuit judge, and the first thing I said was it made me count my blessings.
“Then they asked me what I learned by being a judge. One was that justice in the abstract is very easy. But justice in a case-by-case basis is very difficult.”
Bell was speaking at the first forum in the 2003-04 Judicial Lecture Series presented by the Center of Strategic Governance and International Initiatives and the Center for Professional Development.
Bell said he understood and appreciated the administration “zealously protecting our safety by going after terrorists and terrorist cells, doing everything they can to uproot and prevent disasters.”
Society cannot protect itself without that zealous effort, he added, “and [the administration] has to be single-minded about doing what it can, subject to the oath that the president and every officer in the executive branch gives.
“Inside that [executive] branch is not the place to provide the check. The check is the judicial branch.”
The powers now being sought by the administration would unwisely remove the judiciary from terrorist investigations, Bell said.
“I respect law enforcement very much, but that check and balance is very important,” he said. “That’s a judicial responsibility, and the advocate for the individuals involved, or for the community . . . should say, ‘That’s too far. We need that check.’
“If there’s enough probable cause and reason for you to go and violate somebody’s fundamental constitutional rights, then you ought to be able to come to some venue outside somebody whose paychecks depend on it to look over your shoulder and make sure it’s done right.
“That’s a primary function of what the court system can do.”
Bell was a board certified real estate attorney before serving for 12 years as a trial judge in the 1st Judicial Circuit of Florida. Of more than 27,500 cases assigned to his division, fewer than a dozen were reversed by the appellate courts, he said.
He was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Jeb Bush and took office Jan. 7.
The thrust of his address to an International Hall classroom packed with students and professors was that students need to decide whether they will become professional officers of the court or “hired guns,” making themselves available to the highest bidder.
The first group, he said, further the people’s trust in and respect for the judiciary. The others — “myopic Machiavellian champions of the client’s cause” — spawn disrespect, mistrust and a growing number of lawyer jokes.
“They offend the people’s innate understanding of justice and erode people’s inherent desire to respect judges and lawyers,” he said. “They bring disrespect to us all.”
“Refuse to lower yourself
to be a hired thug to do your client’s dirty work or to line your pockets.”