The new Florida Supreme Court, and Federal Judges in the Sunshine State

-
After getting elected Governor of Florida in 2018, Ron DeSantis was presented with the unique opportunity to immediately appoint a few justices to the state supreme court, as three incumbents went into mandatory retirement due to hitting the age limit. Florida's Judicial Nominating Commission, whose membership was appointed by outgoing Gov. Rick Scott (R), provided DeSantis with eleven names:
  1. John Couriel, a partner at Kobre & Kim
  2. Jonathan Gerber, Chief Judge of the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach
  3. Jamie Grosshans, Judge of the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach
  4. Jeffrey Kuntz, Judge of the Fourth District Court of Appeal
  5. Bruce Kyle, Judge of the Lee County Circuit Court
  6. Barbara Lagoa, a Judge of the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami (ultimately appointed to the Supreme Court)
  7. Robert Luck, Judge of the Third District Court of Appeal (ultimately appointed to the Supreme Court)
  8. Carlos Muniz, General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education (ultimately appointed to the Supreme Court)
  9. Timothy Osterhaus, Judge of the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee
  10. Samuel Salario, Judge of the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland
  11. Anuraag Singhal, Judge of the Broward County Circuit Court
Lagoa, Luck, and Muniz replaced three appointees of the late Gov. Lawton Chiles (D), so the court flipped from a 4-3 liberal majority to a 6-1 conservative composition.

As the Florida federal courts currently stand, none of the Eleventh Circuit seats currently filled by judges from the state are open, and there are a total of six vacancies across the state's three federal district courts.

The Northern District currently has two vacancies and two nominees to fill them: First District Court of Appeal Judges Allen Winsor and T. Kent Wetherell II. Winsor will likely be confirmed next week, and Wetherell is pending on the executive calendar.

The Middle District has two vacancies and one nominee: Fifth District Court of Appeal Judge Wendy Berger, for a seat in Jacksonville, who is also pending on the calendar. The other vacancy ostensibly is in Tampa, but might not necessarily have to stay within that division.

The Southern District has two vacancies, one in Fort Lauderdale, and another in West Palm Beach. Neither seats have nominees.

In the past, Florida’s senators had a bipartisan federal nominating committee, and Sens. Marco Rubio (R) and Bill Nelson (D) used it in the 115th Congress to select seven judges. But Sen. Nelson went down in defeat to now-Sen. Rick Scott (R), so for the first time since the 17th Amendment was ratified Florida has two Republican senators, and it appears that the nominating commission will not be reconstituted and selections of new nominees will instead go directly through the senators’ offices.

With the news that Judge Singhal is being vetted by the FBI for the Fort Lauderdale seat (credit to David Markus of the Southern District of Florida Blog), it’s likely that the nominees for the remaining federal vacancies will be from the JNC’s supreme court list as well.

Eight of the finalists did not make the cut for the supreme court, but they might face the opportunity of winning the consolation prize of a district court appointment instead.

Osterhaus is the only one of the eight who lives and works in the Northern District of Florida, and with no vacancies there, he has little opportunity to be elevated.

Grosshans, Kyle, and Salario are residents of the Middle District, and with the first two judges working in the Orlando and Fort Myers divisions of the court, respectively, it is likely Salario is a prime contender for the Tampa opening (the other two might be under consideration as well).

Couriel, Gerber, Kuntz, and Singhal live in the Southern District, and Singhal appears to be the finalist for the Fort Lauderdale vacancy. I expect that one of the other three candidates will be selected for the West Palm Beach opening. Out of the trio, Gerber is most likely to be chosen, as he is the oldest and most experienced.

It’s safe to say that if additional seats crop up on the Florida federal district courts within the next year or two, the state supreme court finalists will seek those positions, as no seat on the Florida Supreme Court is expected to open up anytime soon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Federal Judges Push Back on the Judicial Conference's Advisory Opinion No. 117

-
In May, The New York Times  and The Wall Street Journal  published an article and op-ed , respectively, about opposition to the Judicial Conference Code of Conduct Committee proposal to ban judges from being members of the Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society, along with similar organizations. Circuit Judges Greg Katsas, Andrew Oldham, William H. Pryor Jr., and Amul Thapar wrote in opposition to the proposal , and 206 other federal judges signed on. A brief analysis of the signatories of the letter follows. All numbers are drawn from the given numbers of judges on the bench on March 18, 2020, the date the letter was sent. First, it bears noting that the incumbent chair of the Code of Conduct Committee is Judge Ralph Erickson of the 8th Circuit. He's one of 8 Trump circuit court appointees to not list membership in the Federalist Society in his Senate paperwork, and (for obvious reasons) one of 5 to not sign the letter. Appointees of every president s...
Read more

Will Trump Release a New SCOTUS List this Year? (Part 1)

-
This is the first half of a two-part series detailing the future of Trump's Supreme Court list. Past presidential elections have featured presidents promising to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court, or more general vows to appoint justices who follow a given judicial philosophy. Donald Trump followed up on that in 2016 by promising to appoint a justice in the mold of the recently-deceased Justice Antonin Scalia. To make that guarantee to the voters more concrete, the Trump campaign, in conjunction with the Heritage Foundation and other outside conservative groups, and the Federalist Society's Leonard Leo, released two separate lists in the course of the campaign. While this was certainly an unprecedented step at the time, today the Supreme Court is more visible than ever to the electorate, and the 2020 candidates have reacted accordingly. For instance, former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has vowed to appoint an African-American woman to the ...
Read more

This Week in the Senate: 4/8/2019

-
This week, the Senate is holding votes on seven nominations, and the Judiciary Committee will convene a nominations hearing. Floor Action: Monday: No votes scheduled. Tuesday: The Senate will vote to invoke cloture on the nomination of former Colorado Solicitor General Daniel Domenico to a district court seat in the state. Due to controversy regarding litigation stances he took while working for the state attorney general, this vote will likely be along party lines, with the exception of a probable yes vote from Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), who returned a blue slip on the nomination. After two hours, the Senate will then vote to confirm Domenico, and then will vote to invoke cloture on the nomination of Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Patrick Wyrick to be a district judge in the state's Western District. Wyrick is the youngest person currently on the President's Supreme Court list, so expect vehement opposition from Senate Democrats. If cloture is invoked, a vote on ...
Read more