Gov. Ron DeSantis named Judge Jamie Grosshans as the newest Florida Supreme Court justice Monday, ending a months-long legal battle over his previous nominee’s qualifications.
DeSantis didn’t specifically mention the high court’s ruling last Friday that said the governor’s picks to fill vacancies on court must be qualified at the time the appointment is announced. Judge Renatha Francis, DeSantis’ first choice to fill the current vacancy, did not have the Florida constitutional requirement of 10 years as a member of the state bar when she was named in May. The governor intended Francis to take her seat on the high court on Sept. 24, when she would have a decade as a bar member.
In their Friday decision, a unanimous court ordered DeSantis to appoint a person who met all qualifications by noon Monday. Even so, the governor’s announcement didn’t come until a 5 p.m. press conference.
In response to Francis deciding to step down as his nominee, DeSantis said he called President Trump and urged him to nominate Francis to the federal bench in the Southern District of Florida.
“That is actively under consideration, and she has my full support to be a federal judge here in Florida,” DeSantis said. He did not address the issue of Francis's eligibility for the state Supreme Court.
The high court's opinion Friday held: “The constitution’s 10-year bar membership requirement and 60-day appointment deadline are bright-line textual mandates that impose rules rather than standards and prioritize certainty over discretion."
During the press conference, Grosshans expressed gratitude to the governor, his staff and the Judicial Nominating Committee for their work, as well as the support of colleagues she has worked with during her legal career, including her current position as an appeals court judge in the Fifth Circuit.
“I have been carried to this moment by the generosity of countless people,” she said. “... you can trust that I will bring a fidelity to the law and an unyielding respect for separation of powers to my service on the court."
The chairman of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus, which supported Francis’ nomination, said on Friday that the legal battle over Francis’ nomination has revealed flaws in the nomination system and the need for legislative reform. In addition, governors need to provide a diversity of thought on the bench so that not all of their nominees think exclusively the way they do, Sen. Bobby Powell (D-West Palm Beach) said.
“One thing that we all agree on is crystal clear – the judicial nominating process is fundamentally flawed and has yielded a judiciary that is not fully reflective of the depth and breadth of the diversity of the population that it serves,” Powell said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “This includes a lack of both racial diversity and, what is too often neglected, diversity of thought.”
The judicial nomination process was designed to give governors considerable influence, he said, but that influence may now need to be re-examined.
“It was not designed to give them carte blanche to populate a bench with only judicial candidates who share their judicial philosophy and who think like them,” Powell said.