State Supreme Court justice shortlist includes 2 judges, 1 lawyer

Florida Supreme Court justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston will almost certainly have a conservative colleague to join their frequent splits from the court’s majority when Gov. Rick Scott appoints a replacement for Justice James Perry.

Perry’s constitutionally manthe dated retirement gives Scott the opportunity to continue moving Florida’s appellate courts to the right, and the three nominees to replace Perry left no doubt this week as to how they would rule if appointed to the state’s highest court.

Fifth District Court of Appeal judges C. Alan Lawson and Wendy Berger and civil lawyer Dan Gerber made the final cut Monday from six women and five men who went before the Scottappointed Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission. The governor had asked for six nominees by mid-December, but wound up with a list of three.

“While I certainly, and the commission, strive to give the governor the maximum amount of names, sometimes that just doesn’t happen in the process,” Court Judicial Nominating Commission Chairman Jason Unger said Tuesday. “Governors usually ask for the maximum. And we try to respect that, but we are sometimes not able to vote out six names.”

Lawson and Gerber were both nominated the last time there was an opening on the court in 2008, but were passed over by then-Gov. Charlie Crist, who instead tapped man they are seeking to replace.

Perry, one of two black justices on the seven-member court, frequently is part of a liberal-leaning majority in decisions that have chafed Scott and the Republicandominated Legislature.

The three high-court hopefuls, during interviews with the comSupreme