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This guy has too much time on his hands....
Why I Sued to Stop Jerry Brown
By Thomas G. Del Beccaro ~ October 19, 2006
Today I will file an action entitled Thomas Del Beccaro* v. Jerry Brown, et.al. The purpose of the action is to obtain a Court order declaring Jerry Brown ineligible to even be on the ballot for the position of Attorney General. Let me tell you why.
First, although sometimes we take it for granted, at this moment it bears repeating: We are a nation of laws not men. None other than George Washington believed that the Rule of Law provided us "ordered liberty."
Second, and rather importantly, that Rule of Law applies to each us, no matter what our station in life. Theodore Roosevelt perhaps said it best: “No man is above the law and no man below it.” US Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis added to that by stating that:
At the foundation of our civil liberties lies the principle that denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.
All of which brings us to Jerry Brown. He wants to be our Attorney General. It is important to note that, according to California Constitution: “It is the duty of the Attorney General to see that the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced.” Indeed, the enforcement of our laws in a dispassionate, uniform and fair manner is the central role of the Attorney General.
Unfortunately for Jerry Brown, it is also the law of this state that no one is eligible to be Attorney General:
“unless he shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the state for a period of at least five years immediately preceding his election or appointment to such office.”
The law is NOT as Brown’s consultant told the Sacramento Bee last night that Brown need only be “admitted to the bar.” There is a difference and the law matters.
Brown’s consultant either misreads the law or knows full well that Jerry Brown does not meet the minimum qualifications for election as Attorney General. In fact, for whatever reason, Jerry Brown chose not to meet the basic requirement for the full five years. Brown has only had an active law license for about 3 ½ years, far less than the minimum five years required. When his law license was inactive, Brown could not appear as a lawyer before any of California’s courts.
According to our Supreme Court:
“An inactive member of the State Bar, of course, is not entitled to practice law, and the involuntary enrollment of an attorney on inactive status thus operates as a temporary suspension from the practice of law.”[1]
Further, our Supreme Court also ruled, in a similar case – reviewing the same requirement and operative language, that if an attorney is under suspension, that attorney specifically does not meet the above eligibility requirement.[2] Why did our California Supreme Court rule that way? Because, according to the Supreme Court:
It is self-evident, we think, that said provision requires as a fundamental qualification . . . that the candidate for such position be qualified as an attorney actually entitled to practice in the state courts.
Brown was not so qualified.
Given Brown’s ineligibility, it is simply wrong for Jerry Brown to even be on the ballot. He cannot serve as our Attorney General and Jerry Brown is not above the law. His celebrity notwithstanding, he is subject to “the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen.”
For Jerry Brown to claim otherwise is for Mr. Brown to undermine our laws – even before he potentially took office.
Further, he believes the law does not apply to him, how he can be trusted to apply the law fairly and judiciously to others?
Finally, in no way should Brown be permitted to wiggle his way around the law – that is hardly the type of leadership we need out of an Attorney General.
Obviously, as citizens, we must expect more from the person who is to occupy the very office charged with enforcing our laws in a uniform manner.
By filing this action, I attempt to honor the many who have gone before me and who stood up for the Rule of Law and made our Constitution real. To do otherwise would be to dishonor their memory and the future of our State.
Please join me in telling Jerry Brown that he is not above the law.
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