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Monday, October 15, 2018

AND YOUR NEXT THREE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES WILL BE CHOSEN BY GOVERNOR ?????


THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A FLORIDA SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, PART TWO .....

Governor Rick Scott will not get the chance to choose the three new Florida Supreme Court Justices on his final day in office. So ruled the current Florida Supreme Court in an unsigned Order issued today.

Last Wednesday, we wrote a post entitled: "CAT 4 STORM TO HIT STATE CAPITAL, BUT IT’S NOT NAMED MICHAEL".   We described the controversy being litigated over which Governor, Rick Scott or the newly elected Governor (DeSantis or Gillum) would be the one to appoint the next three Florida Supreme Court Justices.

Today, the Florida Supreme Court issued the following Order in CASE NO.: SC18-1573, League of Women Voters, et. al. v. Rick Scott:

"The petition for writ of quo warranto against Governor Rick Scott is hereby granted. The governor who is elected in the November 2018 general election has the sole authority to fill the vacancies that will be created by the mandatory retirement of Justices Barbara J. Pariente, R. Fred Lewis, and Peggy A. Quince, provided the justices do not leave prior to the expiration of their terms at midnight between January 7 and January 8, 2019, and provided that the governor takes office immediately upon the beginning of his term. Governor Scott exceeded his authority by directing the Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission ("the JNC") to submit its nominations to fill these vacancies by November 10, 2018.

The sixty-day period after nominations have been certified within which the governor is required to make appointments, as set forth in article V, section 11©, of the Florida Constitution begins to run only when the governor with the authority to appoint has taken office. As the JNC is an independent body, it is not bound by Governor Scott’s deadlines.

The issue of when the JNC can certify its nominations shall be the subject of oral argument to be held at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 8, 2018. A maximum of twenty minutes to the side is allowed for the argument, but counsel is expected to use only so much of that time as is necessary."

In an interesting twist, Attorney Jeffrey Leonard Burns, today filed a VERIFIED MOTION TO INTERVENE FOR LIMITED PURPOSE, OR ALTERNATIVELY FOR LEAVE TO FILE INTERVENOR PETITION.

In Burns’ Petition, he claims that the three Justices, Pariente, Lewis, and Quince, should be disqualified from this action "due to their objective economic conflict of interest" in the case. He states in his Petition that "the Retiring Justices have an economic incentive to determine that their last day of work ends at 5:00 p.m. on January 8, 2019, as opposed to January 7, 2019. ... The three Retiring Justices will each lose one day of salary ($884.94) if they deny the Petitioners' request for relief."

Meanwhile, The Florida Supreme Court’s JNC met last Thursday and agreed to an interview schedule of the 59 applicants for the three open seats. The interviews will take place on November 3rd and 4th here in Miami and on November 8th and 9th in Tampa. The JNC had planned on sending the finalists names to Governor Scott on November 10, 2018.

Here is the interview schedule:


Miami International Airport Hotel
Terminal E; Level 2 to hotel lobby (7th floor conference rooms once in hotel)
(Door #11 if arriving from outside the airport)
305-871-4100

Nov. 3 – Miami
 
9:00 a.m. Alexander Bokor
9:30 a.m. Amy Boulris
10:00 a.m. Jeffrey Burns
10:30 a.m. Howard Coates
11:00 a.m. John Couriel
11:30 a.m. Cynthia Cox
1:00 p.m. James Duncan
1:30 p.m. Manuel Farach
2:00 p.m. Jonathan Gerber
2:30 p.m. Edward Guedes
3:00 p.m. Bradley Harper
3:30 p.m. Terrance Ketchel
4:30 p.m. Mark Klingensmith
5:00 p.m. Jeffrey Kuntz
5:30 p.m. Bruce Kyle
 
Nov. 4 – Miami

9:00 a.m. Barbara Lagoa
9:30 a.m. Norma Lindsey
10:00 a.m. Robert Luck
10:30 a.m. Mark Miller
11:00 a.m. Carlos Muniz
11:30 a.m. Hayden O’Byrne
1:00 p.m. William Roby
1:30 p.m. Cymonie Rowe
2:00 p.m. Leonard Samuels
2:30 p.m. Edwin Scales
3:00 p.m. Anuraag Singhal
3:30 p.m. Elijah Smiley
4:30 p.m. Donna Greenspan Solomon
5:00 p.m. William Thomas
5:30 p.m. Daryl Trawick
 
Tampa interview location:
Airport Executive Center
2203 N. Lois Avenue
Tampa, FL
(813) 348-4963

Nov. 8 – Tampa
 
9:00 a.m. Michael Andrews
9:30 a.m. J. Andrew Atkinson
10:00 a.m. Ross Bilbrey
10:30 a.m. Hunter Carroll
11:00 a.m. Angela Cowden
11:30 a.m. James Daniel
1:00 p.m. Bryan Gowdy
1:30 p.m. Jamie Grosshans
2:00 p.m. Laurel Lee
2:30 p.m. Robert Long
3:00 p.m. Mark Mahon
3:30 p.m. Scott Makar
4:30 p.m. Michael McDaniel
5:00 p.m. Timothy Osterhaus
5:30 p.m. Thomas Ramsberger

Nov. 9 – Tampa
 
9:00 a.m. Eric Roberson
9:30 a.m. Clayton Roberts
10:00 a.m. Samuel Salario
10:30 a.m. Tatiana Salvador
11:00 a.m. Stephen Senn
11:30 a.m. Pat Siracusa
1:00 p.m. Jonathan Sjostrom
1:30 p.m. Adrian Soud
2:00 p.m. John Stargel
2:30 p.m. Anthony Tatti
3:00 p.m. Matthew Thatcher
3:30 p.m. M. Kemmerly Thomas
4:30 p.m. Waddell Wallace
5:00 p.m. Thomas Winokur

You have to feel for Judge William Thomas and Judge Daryl Trawick. They will be the last two applicants interviewed on day two. I sure hope the JNC members are taking their no-doz, (do they still sell that stuff), that day.
 
It will be very interesting to see how all this plays out.

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com

 

7 comments:

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


It didn't take long for each candidate to release a statement on the Court's decision:

FROM DESANTIS:

“Today’s decision makes November’s election even more critical for the future of our state,” DeSantis spokesman Stephen Lawson said in an email. “If Andrew Gillum is elected, out-of-state, radical groups would pressure him to appoint activist judges who would legislate from the bench to fit their own ideology. The consequences of this would be felt for generations, and it would be dangerous for every person in our state.”

FROM THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF FLORIDA:

“Andrew Gillum would appoint radical, activist justices who would legislate from the bench and work to eliminate school choice, erode pro-life principles and impose big-government ideology on our state,” Ingoglia wrote. “Ron DeSantis is an attorney, Iraq veteran and former Navy JAG officer who knows the importance of appointing strong constitutionalists to the bench.”

FROM GILLUM:

I am pleased the Florida Supreme Court has brought closure to this important issue finding, as we have consistently stated, that the next Governor of Florida will appoint the next three Supreme Court justices,” Gillum said in a released statement. “It is a duty I take extremely seriously and, as governor, one of my top priorities will be to restore integrity to the judicial nominating process."

CAP OUT .....

Anonymous said...

GOP plays dirty at every level. Hope they don't get away with this.

Anonymous said...

Captain Justice, Thanks for your reporting on this important issue. I read your Cat4 article with disgust over Gov. Scott's shenanigans. Thankfully, the Florida Supreme Court is grounded and making sound decisions. I hope the next we hear of Scott, he is caught by a FBI sting and is looking at a serious prison term along with Trump Jr.

Anonymous said...

This is a single issue - tort reform. That’s why it’s important to vote d in gov race. Everything else is better with the republicans. The liberal establishment is hyper sensitive p/c vomit.

Anonymous said...

Another example of how believing accusations without evidence leads to injustices:

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article220065800.html

Anonymous said...

Ken Weisman, Dan Lurvy and Abe Bailey

DMD said...

Strongly disagree with above 9:01 single issue comment--many, many important issues in this 2018 Fla election:
Gun control; SYG; climate control; campaign funding; schools; big sugar; pollution; hurricane reconstruction; re-districting; etc !!!
As such, 2018 election is vital prelude to 2020 !!! DMD