Human rights.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Author: Kaimowitz, Gabe
• Date: 01 October 2007

The new Florida Bar President Frank Angones understandably wants to get off on the right foot with his constituency. Alas, to do so, he takes what certainly must be considered a Peter Pan view of the organization in his inaugural president's page about "The Defense of Human Rights." He proclaims "The Florida Bar and its members are at the forefront of human rights."

In Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), the Bar and its members were viewed in a less favorable light. Justice John Paul Stevens in a dissent concluded after the fiasco of voting errors in Florida in the 2000 election that some Bar advocates showed "an unstated lack of confidence in the impartiality and capacity of the state judges who would make the critical decisions if the vote count were to proceed.... Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."

So Florida and its lawyers may not shine so brightly at the U.S. Supreme Court, but as Mr. Angones acknowledges, human rights issues go beyond state and national boundaries. Yet...