Seeking justice in merit retention

Here’s one for us oldsters:
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Remember the Life cereal commercials with Mikey? Two brothers are staring at their breakfast bowl.

“What’s this stuff?” one asks.

They don’t want to taste it, so they pawn it off on the littlest brother.

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“He likes it! Hey, Mikey!”

I thought of the Mikey commercial while perusing the Nov. 5 election ballot. While most of it makes sense, one portion of the ballot always throws me for a loop.

We all do it. Get geared up to vote and start moving down the ballot. President, check! Senator, check! Congressman, check!

And so on, until…what’s this stuff? Supreme Court justice retention? District Court of Appeal judges? Who are these people? Why is their fate in my hands?

So, it being in the middle of the week and all, today I’m going to break down the lesser known portions of the ballot. Because if I can’t give you the dull stuff, what’s the point?

First off, the ballot order. Partisan national, partisan state, partisan county. That’s followed by nonpartisan judicial, nonpartisan local, and then the amendments.

It can be confusing. Local nonpartisan races are shoved near the rear of the ballot after the judges but before the amendments. That’s where you’ll find squeezed in our School Board District 2, Mosquito Control Board, and if you’re in Crystal River or Inverness, city council races.

(Before going further, hey voters: Study the ballot, OK? I shudder to hear about voters walking into the booth and seeing the ballot for the first time. I mean…c’mon. There is some personal responsibility here.)

Taking a closer look:

— Supreme Court Justice merit retention. There are two of those: Justices Renath Francis and Meredith Sasso.

— Fifth District Court of Appeal judges merit retention. Seven of those: Joe Boatright, Eric Eisnaugle, Harvey Jay, Paige Kilbane, John Maciver, Jordan Pratt, and Adrian Soud. Considering there are only 12 judges in the district, that’s over half the bench.

Florida has an odd method of selecting judges. Citizens have a say…sort of. The state tends to give ordinary folks like us more say over who the local judges are, and practically no say beyond that.

Circuit court and county court judges are elected (or appointed) and then re-elected/ defeated the old-fashioned way. Voters choose the judge.
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The governor appoints Supreme Court justices and Courts of Appeal judges, and then voters give them a thumbs up or thumbs down, but no choice in the successor, if there is one.

How do we go about deciding whether these judges and justices deserve to keep the robe? That is a very good question, and one answered succinctly: Practically impossible.

I mentioned during the primary that we elect judges and then hope to never see them in their official capacity. That’s the one elected job we don’t want to interact with. But at least those folks are somewhat local; one of the circuit court candidates was an actual incumbent (Heidi Davis), and she was such a delight on the campaign trail.

So, while electing local judges is somewhat of a mystery, at least they’re neighbors. We can form some basis of opinion on their community engagement.

Supreme Court justices? Appeals Court judges? They’re the robots of the ballot.

The only advice I give about merit retention is the same one I’ve written for decades: Ask a lawyer. Seriously. We all know lawyers. They’re the ones who are more in tune with justices and appeals judges. (As I wrote this, I fired off a text to Mike Kovach Jr., asking if any of these judges are trouble spots. Not that he’s aware of.)

The Florida Bar usually offers some sort of scorecard for judges on the ballot. You can also google the names and see what pops up. (I did, found nothing exciting.)

Judicial merit retention is an archaic system of selecting judges. At the very least, the state should change the ballot makeup so that local races appear before the judges. 

Or, by golly, get these people out campaigning. I’d love to have a Cattle Dog chat with a Supreme Court justice. Wouldn’t that be fun? Ask his opinion on library books.

Look. This is the election biz. Not everything in the process gets us excited. Some of it is simply the process. The governor appoints state judges. Voters, who never, except on rare occasions, would ever come across any of these people, decide whether they keep the job.

Strange system. It’s ours. Mikey likes it. That’s life.

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