Scott wants judges who see it his way
The Florida Bar is all but begging lawyers to apply for oncecoveted memberships on the panels that nominate judges for the governor to appoint.
With too few applications on hand for 12 of the 20 judicial circuits and one of the five district courts of appeal, the Bar has extended the deadline from Feb. 11 toMarch 21.
Unlike his predecessors, Gov. Rick Scott apparentlywants every member of every commission to see the justice system through his eyes.
That means no Democrats. No trial lawyers. No one who might take a citizen’s side.
The dearth concerns two vacancies on each of the 26 judicial nominating commissions. The lawrequires the Bar to submit names for each, 156 in all, to Scott.
He can reject entire lists without explanation and demand more.
Only 231 applications are in, with interest concentrated on the Supreme Court, four district courts of appeal, and the trial circuits comprising Broward, Dade, Hillsborough and Palm Beach counties.
The Tampa Bay Times and MiamiHerald reported four months ago howScott has rejected the 16 lists.
Under Gov. Reubin Askew, who created the nominating commissions, and successors Bob Graham, BobMartinez, and Lawton Chiles, the governors named three to each panel. The Bar chose three. Those six then appointed three more members from the lay public.
But the 2001Legislature gave governors the power to appoint all nine members. Four of the nine— by design, less than a majority— must come from the lists sent by the Bar. Diversity is suffering. Bar President Eugene Pettis warned the organization’s Board of Governors last month that diversity has become “very, very scarce” in the judiciary.
Among 913 trial judges, he said, there are only three Asian Americans, 58 African Americans and 84 Hispanics.
Of the 231nominating commission applicants, there are only 18 blacks and 27 Hispanics.
Scott recently rejected Tiffany Faddis, incoming president of the Hispanic Bar Association of Central Florida. She’s a Republican, but she’s also an active trial lawyer. When the governor’s office called to interview her, she said, it made a point of asking why she had begun representing civil plaintiffs instead of defendants.
“Hewants people with humility,” Scott’s general counsel, Pete Antonacci, told the newspapers, “and hewants judges who will followthe lawand not make it up as they go along.”
That is, of course, doublespeak for judges who will rule as those who appoint themwould expect.
Antonacci added that “The Florida Bar is not an accountable organization in any electoralway. The accountability in the process is with the governor.”
Trouble is, the nominating system thatwas devoted to impartial justice is no longer acthree countable itself. It has become a sham, a camouflage for old- fashioned partisan politics.
There’s no more important issue in the governor’s race. On that score, the mud flies both ways.
Scott Rothstein, a lawyer turned convict over a Ponzi scheme, has claimed in court that Charlie Crist put him on the 17th circuit nominating commission as a “quid pro quo” for contributions. With Crist— who denies it — nowrunning for his old job as a Democrat, Scott’s supporters are exploiting this.
But at least Crist never rejected any of the Bar’s JNC lists.