Janelle Irwin Taylor
A disciplinary panel has recommended that Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Nancy Jacobs be removed from the bench after finding she violated various ethics rules in her 2022 campaign.
The recommendation came from a hearing panel of Florida’s Judicial Qualifications Commission, which found Jacobs made statements in violation of judicial canons, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Jacobs’ successful run in 2022, against Gov. Ron DeSantis judicial appointee Jared Smith, got heated and, according to the disciplinary panel, partisan. Judicial races in Florida are statutorily nonpartisan.
At the time, abortion was a top issue in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning the long-standing precedent in Roe v. Wade. The disciplinary panel previously found in its notice of formal charges that Jacobs had made comments about Smith’s abortion positions, including that he could not be fair and impartial on abortion-related issues because of his religious beliefs, according to WUSF.
That preliminary hearing, in January 2024, also accused Jacobs of improperly touting support from a political committee affiliated with Planned Parenthood, and an endorsement from Indivisible Action Tampa Bay, which the panel deemed an “expressly partisan organization,” WUSF reported at the time.
The most recent hearing found that Jacobs had encouraged a lawyer to run against a sitting Judge and had made inappropriate remarks about a lawyer who appeared in her courtroom, the Times reported.
The panel found the combination of findings demonstrates unfitness for office.
Jacobs reportedly submitted a defense, including letters of apology, but the panel found she lacked remorse.
The vote tally was not disclosed, but represents a vote of at least two-thirds of the six-member panel.
