The Moore you know

By REP. BARRY MOORE

Last month I had the chance to meet many of you during my August town hall tour. I held eleven town halls in eleven counties throughout our district, hearing directly from you about your concerns and telling you what Republicans plan to do if we retake the majority. Thank you to those of you who came out to introduce yourselves and engage in discussions on the direction of our nation.

In October, I’ll pick back up with my town hall schedule and visit each of the counties I missed last month. I’ll be announcing my schedule soon on my Twitter and Facebook accounts (@RepBarryMoore) and on my website at https://barrymoore.house. gov/about/events.

One message I heard repeatedly throughout the month is how outraged Alabamians are about the Democrats including $80 billion in their reconciliation bill to beef up IRS security with 87,000 new agents. That’s why last month I introduced the Bureaucrats to the Border Act to require new IRS enforcement personnel hired through the Inflation Reduction Act to complete a 30-day detail supporting our law enforcement and border patrol agents at the southern border.

In June, there were 207,416 migrant encounters at our southern border – the fourth consecutive month of over 200,000 encounters. That is a 527 percent increase in apprehensions compared to the final June of Trump’s administration. There have now been 16 straight months of over 150,000 illegal border crossings. With the border situation so dire, don’t you agree that the government should be going after illegal immigrants, not American taxpayers?

With the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) updating its guidance for the unvaccinated to essentially match its guidance for vaccinated individuals, there is no longer any need to enforce vaccine mandates, certainly not in our military. That’s why I led a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin requesting he reconsider the military’s vaccine mandate. If this is truly about science, Secretary Austin must act to end this mandate and ensure all our servicemembers so cruelly separated due to this disastrous policy are rehired with full backpay.

The military’s purpose is to kill people and break things, not to serve as a social experiment. With the world on edge and the military struggling to meet recruitment targets, we cannot sacrifice military readiness in favor of virtue signaling and the appeasement of this administration’s radical base.

My office continues to work assisting constituents who need help navigating the federal bureaucracy. If you are having an issue with Social Security benefits, veterans’ services, passports, or any other federal matter, my staff and I are here to help however we can. Please stop my one of my district offices in Wetumpka, Dothan or Andalusia if my staff can help you with federal casework. We’ve resolved over 1,600 cases since I took office last year, and I’d love to help you too. Please call 334-4786330 or visit barrymoore.house.gov if we can be of assistance.

The WeTumpka herald

The term “Florida Man,” is often used as a derisive reference to a male resident of the Sunshine State. But sixty years ago, a “Florida Man,” Clarence Earl Gideon, changed the course of history with a pen, prison stationary, and a determination to fight for his, and our, Constitutional Rights.

Back in 1961, Gideon was arrested, accused of breaking into a Panama City pool hall, destroying a cigarette machine, and leaving the business with money from the machine and the cash register, and some booze. At his trial, the judge asked where his attorney was. When Gideon insisted he was too poor to afford one, and asked for one, he was denied by the judge, who ordered him to begin his defense. Outclasses by the prosecutor who was already prepared with a case file, Gideon was sentenced to five years in prison.

“Florida Man” refers to an Internet Meme sensation and has led to a series of news reports (the

JOHN TURES Columnist

New York Post even has a best list of the exploits of Florida Man). There’s a Twitter account too, and even an TV show I am told, as well as many pop culture references. Typically, the Florida Man from the stories is typically white, and engages in an act that is either violent or involves a serious accident, and can be paired with a trailer, alcohol, and often an alligator.

In reality, Florida Man is probably a social media thing because the Sunshine State has Sunshine laws, providing easy access to arrest records, allowing bizarre cases to be mined for such tales.

Had Gideon lived today, he’d easily fit the profile. But he had another crazy idea, a plan that involved writing to the Florida Supreme Court, and even the U.S. Supreme Court, with whatever writing implement and piece of paper he could find behind bars.

This crude petition for a Writ of Certiorari amazingly made it into the lap of the highest court in America, which agreed to take the case. The justices assigned his case to Abe Fortas, one of the leading lawyers in America. Opposing him and representing Florida in the Gideon v. Wainwright case was a capable attorney who would eventually go on to be a law school dean.

Critics of Gideon’s position noted that in the Betts v. Brady nearly twenty years earlier, someone who was illiterate or had a low IQ could get a lawyer in state cases. And Florida did have them, but only for capital cases. Fortas pointed out that the 6th Amendment does not distinguish the type of case (capital or not), nor does it only permit special cases to get one.

In fact, Fortas’ best argument came when he pointed out that the best attorneys in the country almost always hire a lawyer when charged, as did the famed Clarence Darrow when accused of jury tampering.

You’re probably wondering why I am even bringing it up now. In the last few years, Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have written about overturning the Gideon v. Wainwright case. Justice Samuel Alito has joined a similar dissent, though he has not called for taking away the Gideon precedent per se.

On the subject, I show my students the film “Gideon’s Trumpet,” one of Henry Fonda’s last roles, featuring Fay Wray, Lane Smith, Jose Ferrer, and John Houseman, as much for the ruling as I do for evidence that one man, even a “Florida Man” can make a difference in the law, providing America’s less fortunate defendants a right, which may now under threat in the United States today.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@ lagrange.edu. His Twitter account is JohnTures2.