3 GOP senators endorse Supreme Court justices

Three Republican state senators, "deeply concerned" about mixing politics into the judiciary, urged their party Friday to reconsider its "unprecedented" call for voters to reject three Florida Supreme Court justices who are up for a hotly contested retention vote on the Nov. 6 statewide ballot.

State Sens. Paula Dockery of Lakeland, Rene Garcia of Hialeah and Dennis Jones of Seminole issued a joint statement praising the three justices. The Republican Party of Florida executive committee last month voted to oppose retention of Justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince, calling them "activist judges" who substituted their own judgment for the law.

The three senators -- none of them lawyers, two of whom are not seeking re-election and the other unopposed -- said the issue is not whether voters should consider how the justices voted in controversial cases. The RPOF executive board last month cited the court's reversal of a murder conviction in a gruesome Tallahassee case, which was later contradicted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Since the passage of the merit selection-retention system into our state Constitution in 1976, both major political parties have maintained neutrality out of respect for the independence of the judiciary and the strong desire of the citizens of Florida to keep politics out of the courts," said the statement signed by Dockery, Jones and Garcia. "The justices who are up for merit retention on the November ballot have served ably and honestly in their roles as Supreme Court justices."

Expressing "respect for the balance of power" in the three branches of government, the senators said, "the need for a fair and impartial judiciary far outweighs" any disagreements over controversial rulings by the court.

"We encourage the RPOF to reconsider this unprecedented insertion of politics into what has been a system that has served Florida and her citizens well," wrote Jones, Dockery and Garcia.

Garcia is unopposed for re-election to the Senate next month. Jones and Dockery are term-limited out of the Legislature.

State Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry?shrugged off the three senators' criticism. He said the RPOF executive board would not reconsider its opposition to the justices.

"I appreciate their right to exercise free speech, just as our board did," Curry told The Florida Current in an interview. "Our board is not made up of some bunch of elitist appointees. It's made up of Republican Party members from the 67 counties, the voice of the party."

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith of Alachua said last week the party will not take a formal position on retention -- but only because he does not want to politicize the issue. Smith, a lawyer and former state attorney, said he will speak out vigorously in favor of keeping the justices and warned that the campaign against them is a dangerous partisan effort to give the GOP control of all three branches of government.

There are also 15 District Court of Appeal judges up for retention votes across the state, but no major opposition has been mounted against them. Since the state switched from competitive election to yes-or-no votes on retaining appeals court judges in office, no jurist has been defeated.

But none has faced the kind of organized opposition Lewis, Quince and Pariente have drawn this year. The three have raised more than $1 million among? them to work for retention, but judicial canons forbid them to get into the kind of politicking legislative and executive candidates engage in every two years.?

The Florida Bar is conducting a $300,000 nonpartisan campaign to familiarize voters with how the retention system works, and two organizations of attorneys and past or present government officials have risen to their defense.?

Contact reporter Bill Cotterell at bcotterell@thefloridacurrent.com

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFloridaCurrent/~3/9ocQWijgxKs/go.cfm

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