New lawsuit asks DeSantis to take another shot at appointing qualified justice
A state lawmaker on Monday asked the Florida Supreme Court for an expedited hearing to order the governor to appoint a qualified candidate to the Florida Supreme Court after the court rejected his previous pick as unqualified.
Rep. Geraldine Thompson, a Democrat from Windemere in Central Florida, filed a petition Monday asking the court to choose from the list of candidates the governor was given in January, which included Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Renatha Francis, whom he appointed to the Florida Supreme Court in May.
In a unanimous ruling last week, the court said that DeSantis “exceeded his authority” when he named Francis to the post, even though she is not eligible to serve until Sept. 24. But the court also ruled that because Thompson didn’t seek the proper remedy, Francis remains as the nominee.
In a new petition filed Monday, Thompson asked the court for an expedited hearing and asks the court to require the Judicial Nominating Commission “to appoint one of the 7 individuals that remain on the list certified by the JNC to the Governor on January 23, 2020.”
DeSantis’ lawyers argued that because Francis, who has been on maternity leave from the Palm Beach County circuit court bench, did not intend to take the oath and assume office until Sept. 24, she was eligible for the post.
But the court voted 5-0 that the governor can’t arbitrarily decide when a judge fills a vacancy and that when DeSantis appointed Francis, her appointment took effect “immediately. Not at some time in the future.”
Thompson’s petition also casts blame on the Judicial Nominating Commission, which vets candidates and nominates the list of applicants from which the governor can choose.
Thompson, who is Black, said the JNC also violated the law by including Francis on the list sent to the governor in January and should be blamed if the court now will have no Black members.
Francis, 42, was born in Jamaica and would have been the first Black justice since Peggy Quince retired early last year. She also would be the only woman on the court.
Thompson wrote in her petition that she supports racial and gender diversity on the court but, “achieving diversity should not, and is not, required to come at the expense of sacrificing the appointment of a qualified candidate to the Florida Supreme Court.”
She said the resolution will be that another candidate will be selected but, because the JNC gave the governor only one candidate to choose from who was Black, and that is Francis, the court will be without a diverse bench.
“The JNC and the governor created a situation that has resulted in a lack of diversity on the court,” Thompson told the Herald/Times Monday. “By sending forward only an African American who was ineligible to serve they guaranteed that an African American would not be present on the Supreme Court.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 5:33 PM.
