A Times Editorial

Payback politics

The real losers of the Legislature's childish refusal to fund additional judgeships in a move to get even with the courts will be the citizens who need to have their cases heard.

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 27, 2000

Angry over recent setbacks in the Florida Supreme Court, Republican lawmakers are retaliating with a petty game of payback politics that will hurt ordinary Floridians more than it will the courts. The Legislature's emerging budget includes no money to fund even one additional lower-court judge, despite the Supreme Court's certification and strong evidence that at least 43 new judges are needed to deal with growing case backlogs. That zero-budgeting may be intended as a political slap, but it will only punish citizens who deserve their day in court, not to mention more rational consideration from the leaders they put in office.

How ironic -- and childish -- it is that the Republican-controlled Legislature, blocked from rushing capital defendants to their deaths, would choose to get even by prolonging the time it takes injured or needy Floridians to get relief from the state's crowded courts.

House Speaker John Thrasher this week confirmed what the hole in the budget already implied: the issue of additional judges will have to be put off until next year. So too, apparently, will the court's request for money to carry out the new rules it proposed when it struck down Florida's death-penalty appeals law, championed by Republicans during January's special session. By refusing to fund these judicial necessities, lawmakers show they are acting out of spite -- not in the best interest of the state's citizens.

"The political process is full of retribution, and this session it's payback time for the court," said Rep. John Cosgrove, D-Miami. "This Legislature is on a mission to undermine the judicial branch and create as much chaos as possible."

There's no question that lawmakers' games will undermine the judicial branch. But it will be ordinary litigants who end up taking the brunt. In certifying the need for 43 new judges, the Supreme Court did not pull a number from the air. Using a new case-weighting system, it analyzed extensive case information and trends -- and factored in the effect of recent changes in law -- to come up with the number of judges needed to keep pace with growing backlogs. Even the Legislature's research office has concluded that the court's new methodology produced a more accurate estimate of the true need. Without those additional judgeships, Floridians can count on longer waits and less individual attention from judges.

"Full funding of the requests ... is absolutely essential if Florida's courts are to fulfill their constitutional mandate to resolve cases in a fair, impartial and timely manner," the Supreme Court justices unanimously told lawmakers.

Republican lawmakers should stop trying to bully the court and do more to make sure justice is not delayed in Florida courts.

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