Litigation

Expansion of FL Supreme Court Proposed

By Peter Hardin

Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon, a Republican, has proposed expanding the state Supreme Court from seven to 10 justices, divided between two panels focusing on civil and on criminal cases.

That and other court overhaul proposals that he announced played to widely mixed reviews, according to a St. Petersburg Times article. Cannon said the measures were driven by a push for accountability and improving the administration of justice.

“I understand that the real value of that is we could accelerate some of the cases and things like that. So I’m going to look at it,” said Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican.

“In my opinion, it’s not a good time to expand the number (of) judges when the ones we have aren’t properly funded,” said House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders.

“He doesn’t want the court to have the clout, the power to overturn legislation,” said Bruce Jacob of the Stetson University College of Law. “That’s not the way our government’s supposed to operate,” he added. “We want a strong Supreme Court to buck up against the Legislature when it does something unconstitutional.”

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.

Cannon denied that his Supreme Court expansion measure represented a court stacking effort, according to an article in Gavel to Gavel, a publication of the National Center for State Courts. It is a partner of Justice at Stake.

That article reported that last year, Cannon made his unhappiness clear when the state’s high court scratched off the ballot several initiatives that had been introduced legislatively.

It also noted a recent effort in Arizona to expand the size of the state Supreme Court, without asking the chief justice first.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 08, 2011 (boomark / email).