Gov. Rick Scott’s
Governor’s judicial appointments highly partisan, critics say
judicial legacy will be in place for generations, and — given his appointments during his tenure — it’s probably no surprise that it is a conservative one.
TALLAHASSEE — It was a simple, two-paragraph letter from Judge Robert Benton II to Gov. Rick Scott a little more than a year ago that marked a milestone in Benton’s life and in the course of one of the most important courts in Florida.
“God willing,” Benton wrote at the end, “on January 16, 2016, I will attain the age of seventy years and so become ineligible ... to continue to serve as a judge, except upon temporary assignment.”
And with that, the last Democratic appointee on Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal, who was appointed to the court by Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1994, set in motion the process for a Republican governor to select his successor.
For that successor, Scott turned to Allen Winsor, the solicitor general for Attorney General Pam Bondi. If the 39-year-old Winsor serves until the mandatory retirement age that Benton reached, he will have spent three decades on the bench.
As speculation turns to Scott’s first Florida Supreme Court appointment, with the upcoming retirement of Justice James E.C. Perry, a more dramatic makeover of the state’s judiciary system has gone almost unnoticed. All of the state’s five district courts of appeal now have Republicanappointed majorities.
Three have benches that are entirely comprised of judges named by governors who were elected as Republicans. Gov. Charlie Crist appointed Judge Kevin Emas to the 3rd District Court of Appeal after bolting the GOP late in his term.
Scott alone has appointed nine of the 15 judges on the 1st District Court of Appeal, which is based in Tallahassee and hears most of the cases challenging the authority of the governor and the Legislature.
And with his choices, Scott has at times overtly attempted to shape a more conservative bench and will leave a judicial legacy that far outlasts his tenure. Scott’s legal legacy could be in place for a generation.
In February 2011, a little more than a month after he
had been sworn in as governor, Scott made his first appeals-court appointment. He tapped Burton Conner to serve on the 4th District Court of Appeal in South Florida.
“Judge Conner represents the values and judicial conservatism I am looking for in our judges,” Scott said. “He has a great reputation in the community and a great law-and-order demeanor. Primarily a criminal court judge for most of the past 15 years, he has demonstrated a judicial philosophy that makes him unlikely to overstep the role of the judiciary.”
Some in the legal community were taken aback.
“What it says to me is, the governor has an agenda with judges. It’s unsettling,” former Judge Gary Farmer, whose exit created the vacancy, told The Palm Beach Post.
Scott would rarely again so bluntly link his judicial appointments to a particular philosophy. But he would use phrases popular in conservative legal circles, referring again and again to “the rule of law,” and judicial restraint.
In 10 of the 22 statements about judicial appointments after Conner that can still be found on Scott’s website, the governor uses the phrase “rule of law” in lauding his choice.
Few attorneys are willing to publicly discuss the political leanings of judges. But some, particularly among those whose areas of expertise might not be in favor with the current governor, privately concede that there has been a shift in the direction of the district courts of appeal, some of it preceding Scott.
Those attorneys’ complaints sometimes come around to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group formed in the 1980s. The Federalist Society mentions “the rule of law” in its statement of purpose.
Six of the judges Scott has named to appellate courts since taking office either list themselves as members of the Federalist Society or have been on the agenda to appear before annual conferences of the society.