Here are our recommendations for Florida Supreme Court, Third District Court of Appeal | Editorial
When Reubin Askew became governor in 1971, the Florida Supreme Court (SCOFLA) was one big #FloridaMan joke.
The drunks, dullards, racists and crooks who sat on the state’s highest bench weren’t the best legal minds of their day, but they excelled at making friends in the smoke-filled rooms where judges were picked.
An astute and outraged public backed reforms championed by Askew, collectively known as judicial “merit selection and retention.” The goal was to replace self-interested political hacks with competent lawyers who renounced politics from the day they put on the robe to the day they retired from public service.
For a time, the new system worked well. Accomplished and widely admired lawyers looking to give something back to their profession and to serve their communities threw their hats in the ring of a competitive, but largely apolitical, process.
Things began to change when Jeb Bush became governor. With the Legislature’ s help, Bush seized control of the state’s Judicial Nominating Commissions and began to populate them with political allies who view the judiciary not as a co-equal branch of government, but as a hallelujah chorus whose job it is to rubber stamp whatever the Legislature passes and the governor signs.
It’s a process that favors people like former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s acolyte and hatchet man Carlos Muñiz, an attorney with no prior judicial experience who, astoundingly, now is a candidate for merit retention to keep his seat. Muñiz’s star rose with Republicans who controlled the judicial nominating process during his three years as Bondi’s chief of staff. His “achievements” there include helping Bondi kiss up to Donald Trump while kissing off Floridians who had been ripped off by Trump’s scam “university.”
Before Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to the state Supreme Court, Muñiz worked in the Trump administration, helping U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos disembowel America’s public schools. It’s a mission close to the hearts of Florida Republicans, many of whom have profited handsomely in the school voucher business.
Muñiz — like too many judges appointed by 21st century Republican governors — did not leave a successful career in private practice and take a pay cut for the sake of public service. In the post-Bush era, the road to the robe begins early in a lawyer’s career by glomming on and toadying up to the right politicians and lobbyists who control the sausage-making in Tallahassee.
Muñiz has supported court decisions, for instance, to not consider a lower court ruling that invalidated Miami Beach’s minimum wage ordinance — giving the business lobby a win while trampling home rule; and making it harder for plaintiffs to prevail in damage lawsuits.
To his credit, Muñiz showed a flash of judicial independence when he authored an opinion that effectively blocked DeSantis’ bid to seat the manifestly unqualified Renatha Francis.
But doing the apolitical thing should be the rule, not the exception, for people who hold the power of life and death over 23 million Floridians.
Our recommendation stems not from one or two rulings that we didn’t happen to like. Rather, it’s rooted in the belief that no judge should be a political hack.
Judicial service is not a financial sacrifice. Justices are paid more than $220,000 a year, and receive substantial benefits. At these prices, the public deserves better than a merit retention system that has been hijacked by the politically powerful and is fundamentally lacking in merit.
Nothing will change until voters voice their displeasure at the ballot box.
The Herald Editorial Board recommends NO on the question, “Shall Justice Carlos G. Muñiz be retained in office?”
The five judges in the Third District Court seeking retention have not obviously been involved in politicizing their high court position.
Here are our recommendations:
FLORIDA SUPREME COURT
Shall Justice Carlos G. Muñiz be retained in office? NO
FLORIDA’S THIRD DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
Shall Judge Monica Gordo be retained in office? YES
Shall Judge Eric William Hendon be retained in office? YES
Shall Judge Fleur Jeannine Lobree be retained in office? YES
Shall Judge Thomas Logue be retained in office? YES
Shall Judge Bronwyn Catherine Miller be retained in office? YES
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 10:52 AM.
