Governor gains influence in judge selection

A new law lets him appoint all members of the state's 26 judicial nominating panels.

By ALISA ULFERTS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 20, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's governor just gained a lot more power when it comes to picking judges.

Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill Tuesday that gives him and subsequent governors the authority to fill all 234 slots on the state's judicial nominating commissions, although almost half of those picks must come from nominations from the Florida Bar.

Judicial nominating commissions pick finalists for judgeships.

"This system gives future governors and myself, for a period of time, some ability to have judges that are compatible with our views," Bush said. "And that is as American as apple pie." Bush has to fill 156 of those slots right away, and applications already fill half a dozen thick binders. The forms ask for political affiliation and whether the applicant would be interested in mentoring youths, a program dear to Bush.

Although Bush said Tuesday that is a standard form that has been used for years, he added he sees nothing wrong in searching out applicants whose political views align with his own.

"That's why the bill passed, and that's why I support it and I don't have a problem with that at all. I'm not going to be governor forever," Bush added.

Even though the governor must take names from the Bar for four of the slots on each nominating commission, he can reject those and request a new slate of names. The new law took effect immediately.

Under the old law, the governor made three of the nine appointments to each of the state's 26 commissions, which recommend new judges to the governor. The Florida Bar also made three appointments, and the six appointees then selected the remaining three.

Angered at court decisions that have overturned a number of laws passed in recent years, legislators took aim at the courts with a series of bills that would have established term limits for judges and imposed other restrictions on their service.

Only the change in the judicial nominating commissions won final approval.

That measure also requires the governor to seek out more ethnically diverse people for the JNCs, and it more closely resembles the federal selection system for judges, Bush said.

Critics of the bill question why the current system, in place for 30 years, needs to be changed. They charge that supporters want to undercut the independence of Florida courts, which have overturned laws ranging from death penalty appeals to school vouchers to abortions.

Terry Russell, who is scheduled to be sworn in this week as the president of the Florida Bar, said the law injects politics into what should be neutral ground.

"It lessens the impartiality in the selection of judges and, probably, the way they carry out their duties," Russell said. And that means citizens won't believe they can count on a fair and impartial hearing, Russell said.

"Anything that weakens our faith in the system is harmful," he added.

Proponents of a change say a private group like the Bar has too much of a role under the current system.

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