Jim Rosica
A measure that would impose term limits on Florida’s appellate-level judges cleared its first House committee on Tuesday.
The House Civil Justice subcommittee approved the bill (HB 197) on an 8-5 vote largely along party lines, though one Republican, George Moraitis of Fort Lauderdale, voted against it.
State Rep. John Wood, the Winter Haven Republican sponsoring the bill, told fellow members that serving on the bench should be viewed as “public service, and not a career.”
The measure would limit district court of appeal judges and state Supreme Court justices to two terms on the bench. They now can serve unlimited six-year terms until mandatory retirement at 70.
Coincidentally, it comes in the wake of House Republican displeasure with the Supreme Court over what the controlling GOP caucus perceives to be the overly liberal interpretations of law by most of its justices.
That majority usually consists of Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara J. Pariente, James E.C. Perry, Peggy A. Quince.
Of those, Lewis, Pariente and Quince face mandatory retirement in 2019, according to the court’s website. Perry must retire in 2017 and Labarga will sit for a retention vote next year.
The legislation would require a state constitutional amendment that would have to be approved statewide by 60 percent of voters.
If passed, it would apply only to judges appointed after its passage.
In Florida, appellate judges and justices are appointed by the governor, then sit for yes-or-no “merit retention” elections first instituted in the mid-1970s. Since then, no judge has lost a retention vote.
The Florida Bar has not taken a position on the bill but raised questions about being able to recruit the best candidates for the appellate bench under term limits.
The judicial term-limit idea also happens to be in an 86-page policy paper written by House Speaker-designate Richard Corcoran and other House members that calls for a new “legislative culture of purpose.”
“No public office – be it state representative, governor or judge – should be for life,” Corcoran has said.
The legislation must also clear the Appropriations and Judiciary committees before it can be heard on the House floor during the 2016 Legislative Session. A companion measure has been filed in the Senate.
