A Judge With Common Sense

Judge Joseph G. Will
Seventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida

Every once in a while, I take advantage of my role as chief scribe at Confederate Colonel to post something quite unrelated to our main topic. This is one of those posts.

After my previous post in which I pointed to “power-hungry judges wanting to write law rather than interpret law”, it is only fair to point to a judge who does indeed fulfill his intended role. He also does so with a great deal of common sense – and a sense of humor. The attached Mandate, issued by Judge Joseph G. Will here in my home of Volusia County, Florida, clearly spells out the law and stops a law enforcement officer from twisting the law to suit his own purposes – while still taking a poke at the defendant where appropriate.

Here are a few quotes from this ruling:

The court finds that any person who did not fall off the pumpkin truck last night would understand the charge as described on the face of the ticket.

… the officer would wait in the weeds to bring hapless drivers to justice for speeding or other reprehensible conduct.

One wonders in passing if the driver would have been ticketed if he had been signaling other drivers to be cautious because of the presence of a warm puppy or a kindly grandmother using a walker to cross the street.

Thank you, sir, for faithfully fulfilling your duty to interpret the law and administer justice – with common sense and without losing your sense of humor. If only more men like you sat in courtrooms across America.

To view a PDF of the original document, please click here.