Florida Supreme Court allows Gov. Rick Scott to name replacement for retiring judge

Make sure to let us know what you think... we now have comments turned ON below the article!

The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments in a case earlier this year which focused on whether a state judicial vacancy opened up by an early retirement should be filled by an appointment from the governor or if the replacement should be chosen by voters.

The high court issued a 4-3 decision on Monday dismissing that case and allowing a lower court ruling to stand, which recognized the authority of the Florida governor — in this case, outgoing Gov. Rick Scott — to appoint the replacement for a retiring judge.

WLRN reported that the court actually decided by a count of 4-3 to not even rule on the merits of the case at all, which meant a ruling in Scott’s favor from the state’s 1st District Court of Appeals would prevail.

That lower court ruling means that Scott will be allowed to nominate a replacement for 4th Judicial Circuit Judge Robert Foster, who is resigning his seat on the bench on Dec. 31, 2018, just four business days ahead of the Jan. 7, 2019 date he was originally expected to leave the bench due to his reaching the mandatory retirement age in Florida.

Appointment or vote?

Judge Foster had sent Scott a letter in April informing the governor of his decision to step down from the bench a few days prior to his mandatory retirement, which under Florida law appeared to allow Scott to name a replacement for Foster.

Had Foster waited until Jan. 7 to step down, his replacement would have been chosen in the election.

But an attorney in Jacksonville, David Trotti, had wanted to run in an election to win Foster’s seat, and filed a lawsuit challenging Scott’s authority to name a replacement.

That lawsuit eventually made its way to the Florida Supreme Court, and oral arguments were heard in October.

However, the majority of justices decided that the case never should have even been heard by the Supreme Court, and dismissed the case to allow the appeals court ruling in Scott’s favor to stand.

The three justices in the minority issued two separate but similar written dissents, one of which called the entire case a “travesty” and “sham” that manipulated state law by carefully manufacturing a vacancy to be filled by appointment rather than election, while the other dissent argued that voters should have been given a say in choosing the judicial replacement.

[show_poll poll_id=1082]

“Long-settled law”

Attorneys for Gov. Scott had argued that Foster’s resignation should be considered as having been accepted when Scott received the letter in April, which according to “long-settled law” would mean Scott could name a replacement, even if Foster wasn’t actually stepping down until days before he was slated to leave regardless.

Even as the legal battle raged in the courts, Scott had already announced that he intended to appoint Duval County Judge Lester Bass to replace Foster. That appointment was made official on Monday.

285 Responses

  1. I simply want to say I am new to blogs and actually liked this web site. Almost certainly I’m likely to bookmark your site . You surely have incredible posts. With thanks for sharing your webpage.

  2. I just want to tell you that I am just new to blogging and actually savored you’re web page. Probably I’m likely to bookmark your blog post . You absolutely come with terrific articles. Bless you for sharing your web site.

  3. Welcome to iBeautys Best, iBeautys Best is the number one destination for Latest Beauty Products. Here you can easily buy your desired product from all over the world with very reasonable price.

  4. David-Home Northeast is your premier source for all of your Real Estate investing needs. We provide a variety of solutions for sellers looking to sell fast and investors looking to grow their real estate investment portfolios for better returns. At David-Home Northeast, we are dedicated to improving and redeveloping the areas that we operate in. We specialize in helping sellers of distressed properties (single and multi-family homes, commercial, retail, bank REOs, etc.) find buyers looking to invest. Let us put our network of cash home buyers and private money lenders to work for you so you can say “David” to that old unwanted property.

  5. David-Home Northeast is your premier source for all of your Real Estate investing needs. We provide a variety of solutions for sellers looking to sell fast and investors looking to grow their real estate investment portfolios for better returns. At David-Home Northeast, we are dedicated to improving and redeveloping the areas that we operate in. We specialize in helping sellers of distressed properties (single and multi-family homes, commercial, retail, bank REOs, etc.) find buyers looking to invest. Let us put our network of cash home buyers and private money lenders to work for you so you can say “David” to that old unwanted property.

  6. Natural Releaf CBD | New York CBD Store with locations in Murray Hill, NY | Upper East Side, NY | White Plains, NY Serving New York City, NY and Westchester, NY High Quality CBD Products With Lab Test

  7. Hi I am so glad I found your blog page, I really found you by mistake, while I was browsing on Bing for something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thanks for a marvelous post and a all round entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to go through it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the superb job.

  8. Löydä aito seksi chatti kaveri jo tänään! Rekisteröidy ilmaiseksi ja aloita keskustelut jo tänään! Seksi chat ei jätä ketään kylmäksi edes tammikuussa!

  9. You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be really something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and extremely broad for me. I’m looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!

  10. Good day! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new project in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us useful information to work on. You have done a marvellous job!

  11. Hello, i think that i saw you visited my weblog so i came to “return the favor”.I am attempting to find things to enhance my site!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!

  12. Thanks for the write-up. I have usually noticed that a lot of people are wanting to lose weight because they wish to appear slim as well as attractive. Nonetheless, they do not generally realize that there are many benefits so that you can losing weight additionally. Doctors claim that obese people suffer from a variety of diseases that can be directly attributed to the excess weight. The great news is that people that are overweight in addition to suffering from different diseases can help to eliminate the severity of the illnesses through losing weight. You’ll be able to see a continuous but identifiable improvement with health while even a moderate amount of weight-loss is attained.

  13. Terrific work! This is the type of info that are supposed to be shared around the net. Shame on the search engines for no longer positioning this put up upper! Come on over and visit my site . Thanks =)

  14. A further issue is really that video gaming has become one of the all-time main forms of recreation for people of every age group. Kids enjoy video games, and adults do, too. Your XBox 360 is one of the favorite games systems for individuals that love to have a huge variety of activities available to them, and who like to experiment with live with other individuals all over the world. Thanks for sharing your thinking.

  15. I needed to draft you one bit of word just to say thank you as before over the unique tips you’ve contributed on this page. It is simply particularly generous of you to convey easily all that a lot of people might have marketed as an e-book to help with making some cash on their own, most importantly seeing that you could possibly have done it in case you decided. The things additionally served to become a good way to fully grasp that most people have similar eagerness just as my own to learn more and more with respect to this matter. I am sure there are some more pleasant times up front for individuals who discover your website.

  16. You actually make it appear really easy along with your presentation but I to find this matter to be really something that I think I’d by no means understand. It seems too complicated and very huge for me. I’m looking forward on your subsequent post, I will attempt to get the cling of it!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Popular