Florida Governor Rick Scott would gain more control over judiciary under new GOP House proposal

[seafan]

Our state Supreme Court and now, the lower judiciary are under siege by Rick Scott and his giddy band of thieves.


Christine Jordan Sexton at the Florida Tribune reports:

March 15, 2011

A proposed committee bill that would remove the Florida Bar from the judicial appointment process and allow Gov. Rick Scott complete control over the panels that select judges was released by the Florida House on Tuesday night.

The measure makes changes to the Judicial Nominating Commissions which recommend a list of finalists to the governor for judicial appointments. The commissions play a big role since many judges first get on the bench by appointment, instead of running for office.

The measure, CVJ8, would terminate the terms of all members of the nominating panels and the boards would be reduced from nine members to seven. The legislation would be the most far-reaching bill to affect judicial appointments since the GOP-controlled Legislature gave then-Gov. Jeb Bush additional control back in 2001.

.....

This is just one of a handful of House measures that would make substantial changes to the judiciary. Others would break the state Supreme Court in two, transfer control of rule-making from the courts to the Florida Legislature and increase the threshold that judges need in order to win a merit retention vote.

.....

Here is more on the right wingers' onslaught in the Legislature to break up the Florida Supreme Court.



Reminds me of former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty. In December, 2000, she hated the Florida Supreme Court too.


Below is just a taste of what former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty did. Now she is in prison.

.....

July 1997: Is hopeful that Jeb Bush will choose her to be his running mate in the governor's race. She also tells people that she's interested in running for secretary of state. McCarty later says that she took a serious look at the secretary job but decided to stay on the commission.

.....

December 1999: With her husband, Kevin, is named a chair of George W. Bush's presidential campaign in Florida.

November 2000: Allows two dozen Republican operatives turn her commission office into a makeshift war room and watch the 2000 manual recount on closed-circuit television.

December 2000: Is elected chairwoman of the county's Republican Party.

December 2000: Initiates a statewide movement to rid Florida of its "left wing" Supreme Court Justices. She later chairs "The Committee to Take Back Our Judiciary," a group seeking to recall three Florida Supreme Court justices who sided with Al Gore in the recount.

August 2002: Is hit with a state ruling that says the Committee to Take Back Our Judiciary had filed an "incorrect, false, or incomplete" campaign report and accepted contributions above Florida's $500 limit. The Florida Election Commission later fines her $2,000.

Now she sits in prison, guilty of a federal felony count of honest services fraud.


Oh, and this is her husband.



Please pardon my digression. All of these operatives inextricably fit together in The Machine.

[tabatha]

1. This is NOT democracy. This is NOT "freedom that everyone hastes us for".

[Riley18]

2. This is a coup plain and simple. Where is our freedom now?

[SharonAnn]

3. I donot want any governor, R or D, in complete charge of appointing judges these days.

The entire process is too political, with the extreme right doing anything to get their guys on the bench.

[seafan]

4. You know what's really funny? This GOP screams about "unelected judges"

...running around spreading "judicial activism".


But, yet, this same cadre of right wingers in the legislature wants to give Rick Scott cart blanche to put anyone he wants on the courts. That ain't democracy, baby.


I cannot find the words to describe how hateful these people are.


They are truly a plague on our democracy.

[Octafish]

5. What Plato and seafan said.

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

You're nobody's inferior, seafan. Wish you were governor and moving up.

[seafan]

6. Big Money makes sure that honest everyday people who are sick of the BS will never hold office.

And until we strip this dirty money and the serpents it feeds out of politics, absolutely nothing will change.


Thanks for your kind comment, my friend. See you on the bread line. Or Gitmo.