Florida Supreme Court rules against appointment of Jamaican judge

Lester Hinds, Gleaner Writer

The appointment of Renatha Francis, a Jamaican, as a judge to the Florida Supreme Court has been cast into doubt following a ruling by the said Supreme Court on Thursday.

In a 5-0 decision, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Governor Ron DeSantis exceeded his authority when he in May appointed Francis to fill a vacancy.

The court held that the appointee must be constitutionally eligible for that office at the time of the appointment.

When DeSantis announced Francis’ appointment, he said that she would not take up her appointment until after September 24 when she would have fulfil the 10-year requirement.

Subsequently, a democratic state lawmaker brought a lawsuit questioning the legality of the appointment given that Francis had not been a member of the Florida Bar for the required period.

The suit argued that the judicial nominating commission should not have included Francis because of the eligible requirement.

The Supreme Court ruled that “it is undisputed that Judge Francis will not have attained 10 years Bar membership until September 24, 2020.”

But, while the court invalidated the appointment in principle it also did not change the outcome.

The court rejected the petition and proposed that the commission reconvene and certify a new list from the existing applicant pool and that the governor be compelled to select an appointee from that new list.

The court held, that Geraldine Thompson, who brought the suit, should file a new petition because the “only legally, appropriate and available remedy would be to require the governor to immediately appoint a constitutionally eligible person from the existing certified list of nominees.”

Thompson said that she is discussing options with her attorneys on the way forward.

Francis has not reacted to the court’s decision and it is uncertain at this time whether her appointment will hold or whether the governor will wait until after September 24 and reappoint her.

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