After weeks of sober, serious and secret deliberations, Florida’s judicial selection commission emerged from behind closed doors to present Governor Charlie Crist with its list of approved names to fill two state Supreme Court openings. Like other states that utilize so-called “merit” selection, the power to pick judges for the high court in Florida […]

The Washington Legal Foundation recently published a very good backgrounder by attorneys Victor Schwartz and Phil Goldberg that raises new warnings about the dangers of the unholy alliance between state governments and members of the trial bar – this time in Florida.
Messrs. Schwartz and Goldberg write that Florida Governor Charlie Crist has recently invited mass […]

With four out of seven Supreme Court seats set to open over the next year, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist should have the opportunity to reshape Florida’s highest court for a decade or more. But in Florida ­ as in other states with “merit selection” ­ the real power over who makes it to the […]

An oped by Martin Dykman in the St. Petersburg Times (Florida) rehashes many of the standard, elitist arguments about the promised benefits of judicial nominating commissions.
Dykman leads with the recent decision of Wisconsin voters to oust sitting state Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler – a “dirty and expensive $5 million campaign” where a “dubiously qualified […]