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judicial nominating commission

Martin Dyckman: Judges are not politicians, nor should they play politics

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When the Florida Constitution Revision Commission was debating the election of judges 20 years ago, I sat in the gallery to hear my own words used to attack something that my editorials and columns consistently had supported. The issue was whether all trial judges should be chosen exclusively by appointment, without elections, in the same manner as Supreme Court justices and judges of the district courts of appeal. A commission member who opposed that found a column in which I…

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Patricia Strowbridge latest applicant for Supreme Court

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Patricia Strowbridge, appointed a trial-court judge by Gov. Rick Scott just last year, has become the third applicant for the upcoming vacancy on the Florida Supreme Court. Her application was received over the weekend, said Jason Unger, chair of the Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, on Monday morning. Strowbridge, with a long background in adoption and family law, was named last March to the 9th Judicial Circuit. She sits on the family law bench in the Osceola County Courthouse, according to her official webpage.…

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Second application in for Fla. Supreme Court opening

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And then there were two. Orlando civil-trial defense attorney Dan Gerber has become the second applicant for an upcoming opening on the Florida Supreme Court. Jason Unger, chair of the Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, confirmed the name Monday morning. The 51-year-old Gerber joins conservative appellate judge C. Alan Lawson as the only applicants so far for the seat now held by Justice James E.C. Perry. Lawson is chief judge of the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach. Gerber’s brother, Jonathan D. Gerber, sits…

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Opening for state Supreme Court gets first application

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Conservative appellate judge C. Alan Lawson has become the first applicant for the open seat on the Florida Supreme Court. Jason Unger, the Tallahassee attorney who chairs the Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, confirmed the name Tuesday night. Lawson is now chief judge of the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach. Republican Gov. Rick Scott will make the pick, his first chance to select a member of the seven-member state Supreme Court that often splits 5-2 on matters of…

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Rick Scott begins search for Supreme Court justice’s replacement

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Gov. Rick Scott accepted Florida Supreme Court Justice James E.C. Perry’s resignation Friday and gave the Judicial Nominating Commission until Dec. 13 to submit a list of possible replacements. “The commission’s expeditious handling of this matter is most appreciated,” the governor said in a letter to commission chairman Jason Unger. To replace Perry, the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission will take applications and submit three to six names “of the most highly qualified applicants to the governor, who must make a final selection…

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Adam Smith’s expose on JNC politics is better late than never

in Peter/The Bay and the 'Burg by

The difficulty for being Adam Smith, the St. Petersburg Times political editor (other than his getting dressed for the TV program “Political Connections,” on which Smith displays both an ability for insightful journalism and horrendous wardrobe choices, is that his newspaper spent the last four years sleepwalking through the GOP ascendancy in Pinellas politics. That’s why Smith is forced to write catch-up pieces, such as today’s article debating the apoliticalness (new word!) of the Pinellas-Pasco Judicial Nomination Commission. Smith writes…

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