Supreme Court Justices Targeted by Conservative Group
Oct 28, 2010
As most Floridians learned in their middle-school civics classes, our nation was carefully designed to have three branches of government with a system of checks and balances in place to prevent any one branch from gaining too much power. The governor and the legislature are the political branches of government -- they stand for reelection regularly and are answerable directly to the people for the policies and programs they develop. The judicial branch, however, is different. Judges are tasked with fairly and impartially applying the law, insulated from pressure from political groups.
Like the U.S. Constitution, the Florida Constitution seeks to preserve this judicial independence to allow judges to make fair and just rulings regardless of public opinion. Florida Supreme Court Justices and appellate court judges appear on the ballot every six years for a "merit retention" vote. This process is intended to ensure voters have an opportunity to remove a judge who has acted unethically or abused the office. It is not intended to allow political groups to target a judge based on political ideology or a ruling with which they disagree.
But that's exactly what's happening now. A conservative Central Florida group aligned with the Tea Party is targeting two Supreme Court justices who are on the ballot this year for merit retention. The group is campaigning for the removal of the justices based on a single case: their vote to remove a referendum placed on the ballot by the legislature attempting to "exempt" Floridians from federal health-care reform.
It is crucial that voters separate their beliefs about health care reform, ballot initiatives, or any other aspect of this particular ruling when deciding how to vote on retention of these justices. There is something far larger at stake; the fundamental design of our 3-pronged democratic system is under attack. If this group succeeds in removing these two highly respected judges on the basis of political ideology, judicial independence will be severely undermined.
Every newspaper editorial board in the state, along with the members of the Florida Bar (lawyers from across the political spectrum that see these jurists in action), have all recommended that the Supreme Court justices be retained. You can read the Orlando Sentinel's article here.
Please consider this information when you are casting your vote on merit retention. Be sure to share it with your family and friends. You can use the button at the top of this page to email this page or post a link to it on your Facebook page.