Reply #19: Op Ed: Florida Legislature hatches judicial branch take-over scheme [View All]

[madfloridian]

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/304947

"If you're a Florida lawmaker whose bills keep getting thrown out of court because they're illegal, what do you do? You fabricate a judicial crisis to take over the courts, create a bill, call it a Constitutional amendment, and hope voters buy it.

Florida courts are, for the second time since 2001, facing a legislative assault on their independence as the Florida Legislature tries to conjure up more prefabricated judicial crises to reportedly push more than a half-dozen measures to usurp judicial power and give the Legislature and Governor more influence in selecting judges from the county courthouse to the Florida Supreme Court.

The changes proposed by Florida's legislature would further enable special interest groups -- lobbyists -- angered by any court decision to remove judges they don't like.
Republicans in Florida's legislature are trying to justify splitting the Florida Supreme Court in two to create a second Supreme Court, allegedly to speed up the administration of justice - particularly death penalty cases. One Supreme Court would handle criminal cases and one would handle civil cases. Each court would consist of five members each. Unsurprisingly, the information used by the legislature to justify its actions conflict with reality.

As usual, power business groups are driving the sweeping changes proposed by Florida's Republican legislative leaders. The business groups, with House Speaker Dean Cannon (R-Winter Park) leading the charge, want to dismantle existing judicial nominating commissions, which they see as too close to the state's trial lawyers, and give Rick Scott, Florida's Republican Governor, more power to select judges."

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/304947#ixzz1HO51M77b