On Thursday, April 7, 2011, courts all across the State of Florida received a profound wake up call. The call comes in the form of a major piece of litigation filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in the Second District Court of Appeals in Lakeland. While the lawsuit details the abuses in the 2oth Judicial Circuit, the issues raised in the lawsuit will reverberate across the state. Indeed, every single judge in this state, and especially the chief judges from every circuit, should be carefully examining the allegations contained within the lawsuit in order to understand how the people’s courts have veered away from their sacred responsibility of upholding basic Constitutional rights.
During this rush to churn through as many foreclosure cases as possible, our courts have adopted a pattern and practice of permitting Constitutional rights to be violated in gross and systemic ways. This is exhibited when formal or informal rules and procedures are implemented that favor the banks. This is exhibited every time a consumer or their attorney stands before the court and faces a judge that has already determined that the Plaintiff is entitled to foreclose. This is exhibited when the court sets a goal to clear 62% of the foreclosure cases, then goes to work with ruthless efficiency to meet that target….regardless of what Constitutional rights have to be scrapped in order to get there. This is exhibited when our courts decide to accept and tolerate fraud and questionable documents as a basis for their judgments and fail to consider the consequences of allowing fraud to permeate our court system. And,
The fact that our Constitutional rights are being systematically violated is exhibited when Florida’s Attorney General, in the face of overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing, fails to stand up for the rights of Floridians and punish the foreclosure mills that are knowingly and systematically engaging in abusive practices.
This lawsuit comes at a critical time in our state’s history. The Florida Legislature is showing utter contempt for the entire judicial branch, lashing out against our courts and judges like a petulant child. And now our courts have a choice. Will our courts closely examine the conduct of proceedings and ensure that they are fulfilling their primary role of protecting basic rights or will they continue down the path doing the bidding of the legislature and their interests–the Constitution Be Dammed? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain, we are nowhere near the end of this crisis and how our courts respond to this lawsuit will be a profound and defining test of our entire way of life for decades to come.
