The obscenity-crusading attorney, who launched a campaign to ban 2 Live Crew‘s As Nasty as They Wanna Be in 1989, has been banished from the law profession in his home state.
The Florida Supreme Court this week revoked Jack Thompson‘s license to practice law, finding that he made numerous false statements in court, according to news reports.
Although Thompson can appeal to federal courts, he has to have another attorney represent him. Further, Florida’s highest court has ordered him to close his practice within 30 days and pay more than $40,000.
Miami’s 2 Live Crew were hardly alone in Thompson‘s long list of targets. The 57-year-old attorney, an evangelist, also went after shock-jock Howard Stern, pornography and the video game industry. He filed lawsuits against the maker of the Grand Theft Auto series, alleging that the video game “mentally molest[ed] minors for money,” according to a report on Gamespot.com.
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Fighting to block sales of rap music that Thompson thought to be obscene put him on the map.
When then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and the Florida state prosecutor declined to prosecute Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell, owner of Luke Skyywalker Records, the label of 2 Live Crew, Thompson was able to get local officials to block sales of the album, as well as that of N.W.A.‘s Straight Outta Compton.
Although 2 Live Crew sued Broward County’s Sheriff’s Office in federal court, that court ruled that the album was obscene and barred its sales. An appellate court later reversed the obscenity ruling, because simply playing the tape was insufficient evidence of the constitutional requirement that it had no artistic value.
In 1991, Thompson took on N.W.A.‘s album Efil4zaggin and in 1992, pressured Time Warner against releasing Ice-T‘s album Cop Killer. Time Warner eventually succumbed and released Ice-T and his band Body Count from a contract.
