Florida Supreme Court to go without a black judge

TALLAHASSEE — For the first time in 36 years, the Florida Supreme Court will not have an African-American member when three new justices join the court early next year.

Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis will select the new justices from a list of 11 nominees sent to him Tuesday by the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission. None of the nine judges and two lawyers on the nominee list is black, although six of the original 59 applicants were AfricanAmericans.

That means when Justice Peggy Quince’s term ends on Jan. 8, it will mark the first time since January 1983, when the late Justice Leander Shaw joined the court, that the Supreme Court will not have a black member.

DeSantis will select the three justices to fill vacancies left by Quince and justices Barbara Pariente and R. Fred Lewis, who are leaving the court because they have reached a mandatory retirement age.

The looming absence of a black justice on the highest court in the nation’s third-largest state, which has more than 3.5 million AfricanAmerican residents, drew sharp criticism from prominent black lawyers and a former AfricanAmerican justice.

“It’s not a good day for the judiciary of the state of Florida when you’re going to look up there [at the Supreme Court bench] and not see anybody who is black after 36 years,” said former state Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa lawyer and longtime civil- rights leader. “What message are we sending to our kids? That it’s a complete reversal of going back to the days of segregation?”

Joyner, a Democrat, put the blame on Gov. Rick Scott, who has appointed all the members of the judicial nominating commissions that develop the appointment lists for state appellate and trial courts. She said Scott has filled the nomi-