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Rick Scott and his criminal cronies got slapped a little.
FL GOP Attempt to Dismantle Judiciary FAILS
by SemDem for DKos Florida Wed May 04, 2011
It's truly a wingnut's wet dream here. And just like a dictator who has fallen out of favor, the Fleabag lawmakers are pulling all stops to cling to power.
There are only two main obstacles: an awakened, angry electorate... and the court system, our third branch of government. The Fleabag lawmakers have already taken care of the electorate with a fast-tracked, blatant voter suppression bill that I covered in my last diary. Rachael Maddow devoted her show to it last week. So there's that.
So that just leaves us with the state judiciary, which has not been playing ball with the GOP as of late.
The Florida Supreme Court did the unforgivable last year. Not only did they NOT throw out two grass-roots citizen-led initiatives (amendments 5 & 6) that would end gerrymandered districts to protect incumbents in our legislative and congressional elections, but they had the audacity to throw out the GOP legislature's ominous Amendment 7--which was an amendment the legislature tried to sneak in that would "clarify" 5 & 6 if they passed. And by clarify, I mean overturn. It was so misleading that Judge Shelfer said it took him three days to understand what was written; and he tossed it off the November ballot.
With nothing to confuse the voters, amendments 5 & 6 won handily. The GOP could NOT let this stand. Judges, like the electorate, had to know their place in the new order.
So they attempted to work over Florida's judiciary:
1. SB 1504, sponsored by GOP Sen. David Simmons, would revoke the Florida Supreme Court’s power to remove any proposed constitutional amendment from ballot just because it is "misleading to voters".
Think about that for a second.
2. Attempted to disband the Judicial Nominating Commission, which currently chooses nominees for the Supreme Court and state courts. Gov. Voldemort would have had the SOLE authority to nominate state and Supreme Court justices.
3. Attempted to split the court into two...move all the Democratic-appointed judges to the new Criminal division, and then allow Gov. Voldemort to appoint three new right-wing justices... just in time to review the redistricting maps.
4. Attempted to give themselves the authority to nix judicial rules and procedures put in place by the Supreme Court. No power grab there.
5. Attempted to move the bar for judges to win re-election to 60%.
6. Punish the courts by cutting their funding. In the same breath the state legislature is saying they want to increase efficiency, their budget cuts the high court's staff more than 50 percent. That'll learn 'em! (Staff increased for the other two branches, by the by.)
Every bar association, independent legal scholar, major state paper and national papers, including USA Today, called this scheme for what it was: a powergrab and payback. Activists flooded their legislator's inbox and voiceball.
And as of yesterday, when the world was celebrating a terrorist's death, the powergrab of the Florida judiciary died as well.
A watered down version passed Monday would allow Senate confirmation of justices, give the House access to confidential judicial investigations, and, of course, #4--allow the legislature to repeal judicial procedural rules enacted by the court. The good news is that this amendment requires voter approval by 60% next election. Ha!
The bad news is that the legislature still yanks and threatens to yank funding when they throw their temper tantrums. This is where I need your help:
I am calling on activists to start a citizen-led initiative for an amendment of our own: Automatically fund the state judiciary with 1 percent of the state's budget.
Currently, the judiciary budget is under .07%, and the legislature vindictively cuts it when they feel like it. The judiciary, which we depend on to stop some of the insanity, is so underfunded that the judiciary had to beg for a $14 million infusion just to keep operating to the end of April!
The courts cannot count on the legislature to do the right thing, and neither can we.
