Term limits would risk quality of judges, heighten revolving door
Two-hundred-and-thirty years ago, in the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton argued that temporary terms in office would imperil the quality of the judiciary.
Now in 2017, the Orlando Sentinel’s Editorial Board has strongly and repeatedly made the same argument, that “regularly purging the ranks of appellate judges in Florida of their most experienced and knowledgeable members is just a bad idea.”
Some truths are eternal, and Florida’s Legislature would be wise to heed more than 200 years of sound advice. However, two proposed constitutional amendments (HJR 1, which has been passed by the House, and SJR 482, being weighed by the Senate) would impose term limits on Florida’s appeals court judges.
No other state has tried such a dangerous experiment with its judiciary. These proposals are an attack on the independent and impartial third branch of government.
They would jeopardize the current and future quality of the judiciary, increasing turnover while, at the same time, shrinking the pool of high-quality and highly qualified applicants. They would discourage young and talented lawyers from considering a career of judicial service. They would remove institutional knowledge and experience from the bench, threatening those — including Florida’s business community — who depend on stability and predictability in the courts.
There are good reasons why no state or the federal government imposes term limits at the appellate level and why voters have rejected the concept in three states where it was placed on the ballot. Knowledge and impartiality matter, and they don’t arrive through a revolving door of inexperience.
Judicial term limits would be bad for Florida. That’s why The Florida Bar, in a unanimous vote by its Board of Governors, opposes term limits for the judiciary. Likewise, 18 voluntary sections of the Bar — including Alternative Dispute Resolution, Appellate Law, Business Law, Criminal Law, Elder Law, Environment and Land Use Law, Family Law, Health Law, Trial Lawyers and Real Property, Probate & Trust Law — oppose judicial term limits, as does the Bar’s Young Lawyers Division.
Our judges don’t write the law; they interpret it. They need a system that allows them to make decisions based on correct interpretations of the law, even if those decisions are unpopular. As the Orlando Sentinel stated in another editorial this month, the proposed term limits “send an unmistakable warning to Florida’s judiciary: There’s a political price to pay for daring to serve as a check on another branch of state government.”
Certainly, judges must be held accountable when they betray the trust we place in them, and in Florida they are. Judges who violate judicial canons are prosecuted by the Judicial Qualifications Commission and disciplined by the Supreme Court. Florida’s Constitution also provides for impeachment of judges by the House of Representatives and trial by the Senate.
Through merit selection and retention, judges also are accountable to Florida’s voters. Florida’s judicial nominating commissions carefully recruit and evaluate judicial candidates, and then submit the names of the most highly qualified applicants to the governor, who makes the final decision. After they are appointed, Florida Supreme Court justices and appeals court judges appear on the ballot for retention in nonpartisan elections every six years.
No jurist has failed to be retained since the first retention vote in 1978, a testament to the effectiveness of merit selection and merit retention. The system works. That is no reason to seek another way to remove judges from office.
Alexander Hamilton knew how difficult it would be to find people with both the skill and the integrity to be good judges. If a temporary term would discourage potential judges, he wrote, it would “have a tendency to throw the administration of justice into hands less able, and less well qualified, to conduct it with utility and dignity.”
A fair and impartial judiciary, free from political pressures, is essential to preserving the rule of law and the balance of power in our state and nation. Improving Florida’s courts is a worthwhile goal, but — as the Orlando Sentinel has urged in its editorials — Florida legislators should oppose applying term limits to judges. Our democracy is not up for grabs.