Mark Ferrulo: A judicial emergency affecting all Floridians

Beginning March 4, many Floridians will be focused on the legislative battles of the 2014 Legislative session.

Many of us still can’t forget the 2012 session when state lawmakers placed draconian limits on our fundamental right to vote.  Our Legislature that year passed a law that restricted Floridians’ access to the ballot, particularly minorities, young voters, and people with disabilities. These laws placed strict rules on registering new voters and dramatically limited early voting options so popular among middle class Floridians.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t stop the Legislature from passing these harmful provisions, so we turned to the federal courts. The judges held our fate in their hands. One federal court, in a decision by a Clinton-appointed judge, struck down the strict rules on registering new voters. Another federal court, in a decision by a George W. Bush-appointed judge, upheld the law that severely limited early voting.

Any observer of lawmaking in Florida has learned by now that no matter what happens in our Legislature, the final decision when it comes to laws that affect our day-to-day lives is more often than not made by a judge. That’s why our courts matter.

There are four vacancies on Florida’s federal courts. These incoming judges will make decisions impacting many of the profound issues Floridians care about. So while our focus now shifts to the state legislature, we should not forget what we can do to fill these critically important judicial vacancies.

Earlier this month, President Obama nominated four outstanding and diverse candidates to fill these seats. Now, we must hold our U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson accountable for pushing these nominees through the confirmation process as quickly as possible.

Three of these seats have been vacant so long that the U.S. Judicial Conference declared the vacancies judicial emergencies because the lingering vacancies have caused an extreme backlog of cases.

It’s no secret why we are in this situation. Our senators play a central role in the process to confirm judges. When a vacancy occurs in district court, the White House defers to the state’s senators to suggest candidates.

But until the White House receives these names, it cannot begin to vet the candidates and make official nominations. If the senators refuse to put forth names, we can’t even begin the process.

Once there are nominees, the state’s senators are responsible for pushing the nominees through quickly. In the past, Rubio has held up nominees for months and months, for no apparent reason other than to slow the process deliberately.

Rubio is not the only one; in recent years other Republican senators have done the same in their home states. The result has been unprecedented obstruction and delays — hurting no one but the people who are waiting for their day in court.

It shouldn’t be a years-long process to appoint a federal judge. We should expect our senators to fill all the vacancies on Florida’s district courts quickly now that we have extremely qualified nominees. Rubio and Nelson are the only ones who can make that happen.

Mark Ferrulo is the director of Progress Florida, a statewide progressive advocacy organization.