Disbarment
Jack Thompson, the Florida lawyer noted for his activism against video games, rap music, and Howard Stern was permanently disbarred for various charges of misconduct. The action was the result of several grievances claiming that Thompson had made defamatory, false statements and attempted to humiliate, embarrass, harass or intimidate his opponents. The order was made on September 25, 2008, effective October 25. However, Thompson attempted to appeal to the higher courts in order to avoid the penalty actually taking effect. Neither the US District court, nor the US Supreme Court would hear his appeal, rendering the judgment of the Florida Supreme Court final.
Henry Adams Thompson
Henry Thompson was born in Stormstown, Centre County, Pennsylvania on March 23, 1837, the son of John Thompson and Lydia Blake Thompson. John Thompson was the manager of an ironworks in Centre County, and later owned a general mercantile business in Stormstown. Lydia Blake was a Quaker from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, who was disinherited when she married Thompson, a Presbyterian. John Thompson was politically active and served two terms as county sheriff. He was active in anti-slavery and temperance causes, in both of which his son Henry followed him.
Thompson graduated from Jefferson College (now Washington & Jefferson College) in 1858 with a bachelor's degree, and studied for two years at the Western Theological seminary (now Pittsburgh Theological Seminary). In 1861, he was appointed professor of mathematics at Western College (now Leander Clark College), a United Brethren-affiliated college in Shueyville, Iowa, and taught there for one year. The United Brethren, a pietist church that arose first among Pennsylvania Germans during the Great Awakening, was one of the earliest churches in the United States to embrace abolitionism. By Thompson's time, they had also joined the fight for the prohibition of alcohol, though most did so from within the Republican Party and did not join the small single-issue Prohibition Party.