Litigation

Bill to Overhaul FL Supreme Court Advances

By Peter Hardin

A proposal to expand the Florida Supreme Court from seven to 10 members and split it into civil and criminal tribunals cleared a state House committee over protests that sponsors were engaged in improper meddling.

“I wish they didn’t have this feeling of trying to remake the whole judiciary,” said former Gov. Reubin Askew, a Democrat who set up Florida’s existing system of merit selection of judges, according to a Miami Herald article.

Also critical of the plan was Joseph Hatchett, a former state Supreme Court justice appointed by Askew.

Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon, a Republican, recently unveiled the court overhaul proposal (see Gavel Grab).

Cannon?s other proposals would make public the investigations of any judicial misconduct and would require appeals judges to capture 60 percent support from voters to stay on the bench after a term expires. These require approval not only from the legislature but from voters as well.

A Republican-sponsored bill to require Senate confirmation of a governor’s appointment to the state Supreme Court and appeals courts was approved by the committee. It would eliminate appeals court-level judicial nominating commissions.

Doing away with eliminating the nominating panels would represent a step backward, the Florida Bar said. Democrats faulted the bill on grounds it would politicize state courts.  ?I can?t help but think we?re making the judiciary more like the Legislature,? said Democratic Rep. Darren Soto.

Meanwhile the latest edition of Gavel to Gavel, a publication of the National Center for State Courts, reported on legislation in various states affecting their courts, including the following:

• Legislation in Iowa would not only restrict marriage to a man and a woman, it would bar the state Supreme Court from considering challenges to that definition of marriage.
• A Kansas House committee approved a bill would take away from the state Supreme Court the authority to rule on school funding.

The center is a partner of Justice at Stake.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 18, 2011 (boomark / email).