ORLANDO, Fla. — A special commission tapped to narrow the list of Florida Supreme Court nominees will meet at the Orlando airport next Tuesday.
- Supreme Court nominating committee to select nominees from 59
- Governor-Elect DeSantis to appoint 3 state Supreme Court nominees
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Those nominees are being narrowed down to fill vacancies created by three retiring justices. Governor-Elect Ron DeSantis will be appointing those three state Supreme Court justices.
DeSantis spoke out on the campaign trail about the possibility of appointing new justices.
“I will be somebody who will appoint justices to the state supreme court who understand the proper role of the court is to apply the law and constitution as it is actually written, not to legislate from the bench.”
The committee will select nominees for vacancies created by the mandatory retirement of Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente, and Peggy Quince. The three make up the 4-3 liberal majority on the court.
Political Analysts say the process of narrowing those candidates will take time and will be handled very carefully.
“You’ve seen both parties sort of try to jockey the influence (in) which direction the court would make. They have tried to do it on the ballot with age restriction, they have tried to do it other ways, try to limit and stir the court the way they want it to go. But now that Ron DeSantis has the ability to make these decisions, he’s going to have a lot of control over where the ultimate decisions come from in the state of Florida,” Political analyst Frank Torres said.
There are currently 59 applicants that have gone through the interview process this month. The list will be narrowed down to six nominees for each of the three vacancies in the Florida Supreme Court. DeSantis will then appoint justices from that list of 18 nominees.
“I think you are going to see a lot of different opinions and very strategic approach to ultimately bring in the right candidate,” Torres said.
The 59 applicants are past and current judges or lawyers spanning from Miami to Tallahassee. When the committee narrows the applicants down, DeSantis will appoint three justices to the state supreme court.
The nominating commission is expected to meet at the Orlando airport at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. We are told those proceedings are closed to the public.