Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis has long been known as a wealthy amateur pornographer, female reporter assaulter, and Ashley Dupré-related smut peddler. He's now trying to add another identifier: protector of the American Constitution.

Back in 2003 (spring break, like you even had to ask), Francis got himself into some hot water after Panama City officials arrested him pretty much for being Joe Francis. Before he even stepped foot in Florida, Bay County officials were quoted on record calling Francis "scum-sucking trash," adding that they'd arrest him if he brought his dirty shtick to the otherwise civil proceedings that constitute Spring Break in Panama City; after Francis came anyway, they stuck to their word. Though he was hit with 71 charges of child pornography, racketeering, and filming of minors, only eight—stemming from an incident in which two 17-year-old girls accused him of filming them performing sexual acts in a motel shower—ended up sticking.

Francis, who was found in contempt of court during a hearing in April 2007 for allegedly threatening to "bury" the plantiffs' attorneys during a court-ordered mediation (his own lawyer's rebuttal: "There is no allegation that Francis was holding a shovel when he made his comment"), ended up entering into a plea in March 2008. He was sentenced to time served, around 11 months.

He's now angling for his payback.

A $300 million lawsuit Francis is filing today against Panama City officials today posits that Joe has been the victim of a litany of shady legal dealings at the hands of Richard Smoak, the presiding U.S. District Court judge, as well as the plaintiffs' lawyers Ross McCloy and Franklin Harrison. Among the allegations: Smoak refused to grant Francis bail because he and McCloy were old pals and former law partners; Smoak threatened Francis with immediate incarceration unless he signed a money wire order from jail to settle a multi-million dollar civil suit the 17-year-old girls had filed—a suit also filed by his old lawyer friend; and Smoak slapped Francis with a criminal contempt of court charge right after he settled the civil suit just to keep him in jail long enough to appease the Panama City officials who hated his guts and who looked kind of silly after most of their charges were dismissed. "This is a constitutional battle much bigger than Joe Francis," a spokesperson tells Radar. "Say what you will about the guy's business, but his 1st and 8th Amendment rights have been severely violated. The way they run their courthouse down there, it's a throwback to 1950s-style Southern justice. This happened to a rich white guy. Can you just imagine what happens to poor black men? What happens to the Average Joe?"

Francis has previously compared his plight to those of Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr.; will this be the time he finally gets some recognition for being one of the pre-eminent civil rights crusaders of our time? The thing is, he actually does seem like he was given a raw deal while in jail. "The biggest threat to our free speech is that people don't think they can make a difference," he somberly intones in the video above. Which is why he asks you to write the House Judiciary Committee and let the chairman know about "Judge Smoak's role in this travesty of injustice."

Hear that? If you care about America, you'll help Joe Francis fulfill his dream of turning Panama City into "Joefrancisville, Florida!" What are you waiting for?!