We think: The Supreme Court justice nomination mess isn't the governor's alone
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
Dec 27, 2008
Charlie Crist is taking a well-deserved pummeling, but he doesn't bear the sole blame for the current fiasco over selecting Florida's next Supreme Court justice.
The governor did, however, get the ball rolling earlier this month when he insisted that a list of five nominees from Florida's Judicial Nominating Commission for a vacancy on the Supreme Court lacked diversity. Good point. Of the five, none was African-American. There was one Hispanic, but he seemed out of the running after Mr. Crist appointed him to a lower court.
In his characteristically off-hand manner, the governor told the nominating commission to try again. Trouble is, there's some question about whether the governor can or should ask for a new list of nominees if he doesn't happen to like the one he got. The nominating commission is set up so it can act independently and apolitically.
That's hard to do if the person you're supposed to be independent from -- in this case, the governor -- demands a do-over.
But that's what the governor did, arousing suspicions that while his public motives were noble, what he really wanted was for the nominating commission to add a politically connected lawyer who used to work for former Gov. Jeb Bush and now is the U.S. Navy's general counsel.
The nominating commission did his bidding, waiving its own rules and adding Frank Jimenez to the list. That prompted a letter of protest from a group of lawyers and former judges, and threats of a lawsuit.
That notwithstanding, Mr. Crist shouldn't shoulder the burden for this mess alone.
Whatever the governor's motives, it's hard to fathom that the state's nominating commission couldn't turn up any candidates who are black. That was the case in August, too, when Mr. Crist was given eight nominees to fill two Supreme Court openings. That time there not only weren't any African-Americans, there were no women, either.
To his credit, Mr. Crist complained about that lack of diversity then as he did more recently, though it's notable that he passed on two Hispanic candidates who were nominated last summer. But at least the governor is consistent, even if he doesn't show much regard for the nominating process.
This isn't all that complicated: The people who nominate Supreme Court justices need to provide qualified nominees who look like Florida, and Mr. Crist needs to respect the process. Do that, and we won't have this mess.