The Florida House of Representatives wants to create a 6th District Court of Appeal. It's an idea that reeks of pork and patronage.
Published April 1, 2004
The smell of frying pork hangs heavy over the Florida House of Representatives, which is in the process of creating a new district court of appeals that Florida simply doesn't need and can't afford. There are already five. That's enough.
The proposed 6th District Court of Appeal, incorporating 10 Southwest Florida counties that are now part of the 2nd District, would be based at the present headquarters of the 2nd at Lakeland. At least that's what the bill says. But in Tallahassee, the word on the street is that it would be moved before long to somewhere nearer the Fort Myers home of House Appropriations Chairman Bruce Kyle, who's pushing the bill. There happen also to be plenty of good Republican lawyers, including some area legislators, who would happily volunteer for appointment. Statewide, six new judgeships would result from the shuffle.
The new district would be a bad idea even without suspicions of pork or patronage. Assuming that its headquarters remained at Lakeland, there would need to be a new headquarters for the 2nd District, which would consist of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and five counties - Hernando, Lake, Marion, Citrus and Sumter - that would be removed from the 5th District.
Kyle's bill calls for the shrunken 2nd to be headquartered in Tampa, presumably at the building it now shares with the Stetson University College of Law Center. The trouble with that notion is that while the building houses satellite courtrooms for the district court, there is no space for a clerk's office. That would have to be built, and it couldn't be done by July 1, when the bill proposes to launch the new court. Moreover, the building at Lakeland has a $1-million asbestos contamination problem awaiting cleanup.
Any new district, wherever it were put, would needlessly complicate Florida's appellate jurisprudence. Much of the Supreme Court's caseload comes from having to resolve conflicting decisions of the five existing courts of appeal, so a sixth court would inevitably make more of that. And because of a quirk in Florida's Constitution, the next vacancy on the Supreme Court could go only to someone living within the boundaries of the new district. That's another reason to suspect patronage as the inspiration for the scheme.
The Supreme Court did not recommend a sixth court of appeals. The 2nd District's chief judge, Chris Altenbernd, waited more than seven hours Friday for a chance to tell the House committee why he sees problems with it, but he wasn't allowed to speak. It looks as if Floridians will have to count on the Senate to dispose of this expensive, unnecessary package of pork.
