Jim Rosica
A measure that would impose term limits on Florida’s appellate judges has cleared its last House committee, despite critics’ warnings that it will cause a brain drain on the bench.
The bill (HB 197) cleared the Judiciary Committee Thursday by a vote of 11-6, sending it to the full Florida House of Representatives.
To take effect, it must be finally approved by 60 percent of voters as a constitutional amendment. Moreover, a Senate companion has not yet been heard in committee.
Under the measure, pushed by Republican state Rep. John Wood of Winter Haven, district court of appeal judges and state Supreme Court justices would be limited to 12 years on the bench, or two six-year terms.
They now can serve virtually unlimited six-year terms, after appointment by the governor, until mandatory retirement at age 70. Such judges must stand every six years for yes-or-no “merit retention votes” that no judge has lost since the system began in the 1970s.
The measure does not apply to trial judges. They must stand for election every six years, though few sitting judges are challenged.
As Democrats on the panel pointed out, the bill comes in the wake of House Republican displeasure with the state Supreme Court over what the controlling GOP caucus perceives to be overly liberal interpretations of law by most of its justices.
Most recently, Republicans smarted over the court’s ordering that Florida’s congressional and state Senate districts had to be redrawn, saying GOP legislative leaders had unconstitutionally gerrymandered them to favor Republicans.
State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Miami Democrat, called the bill “retribution from one branch to the other.” But Wood said it was about “returning power to the people.”
“Thomas Jefferson … warned us that the greatest mistake we made in the Constitution was creating these gods,” Wood said, referring to judges. “We need to transform our society … and recognize these appellate judges are policy makers.”
Democratic state Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Coral Springs tried tacking 18 amendments onto the bill, though he eventually withdrew them all, saying he was trying to make a point.
Some of the amendments would have limited state senators, the governor and Cabinet members to one 4-year term, and House members to two terms, or eight years.
Moskowitz later said he thought that “just filing the bill is intended to affect the decisions” the courts make. The effort is opposed by various sections of The Florida Bar and its Board of Governors, representatives of those groups said.
State Rep. Dwight Dudley, a St. Petersburg Democrat, noted that expecting younger judges “to just be able to go back to law practice (after 12 years) is not possible for 99.9 percent of them.”
One Republican, Julio Gonzalez of Venice, also said he worried that some judges, with a mind to seek a job from lawyers with cases before them, “may decide to please (their) next employer” and rule for them. Despite that reservation, he voted for the bill.”
