"For the first time in 36 years, Florida will not have a black Supreme Court Justice on the bench." (St. Augustine Record Editorial)

Excellent editorial in the St. Augustine Record. Due to insensitivity on the part of the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, whose members were appointed by Governor RICHARD LYNN SCOTT, "For the first time in 36 years, Florida will not have a black Supreme Court Justice on the bench." That's what happens when you vote for racists, darlings.

This stinks. To the 100,000 African-American women (18%) who reportedly voted against Andrew Gillum and for Ron DeSantis, you were wrong.

From The St. Augustine Record:




RECORD EDITORIAL: Rick Scott lost the battle, but won the war


Posted Dec 4, 2018 at 6:17 AM
Updated Dec 4, 2018 at 6:17 AM

Just prior to the Nov. 6 election, The Record editorialized on what we saw as a greater significance to the governor’s race — than the governor’s race.

It was that either Andrew Gillum or Ron DeSantis would be selecting three new state Supreme Court Justices as one of their first official acts.

The current court is considered to be a little left-leaning with a majority of 4 to 3. Although partisan politics is supposed to be above any of the seven, their consciences generally are not.

The point turned out to be fairly moot. You may remember Gov. Rick Scott had desperately tried to cheat the system by naming the three judges himself on his final hour as Governor. He was overruled by the court he sought to stack, when it decided the incoming governor would, by law, select the new justices.

However, Scott had already seated a judicial nominating commission which, not surprisingly, he stacked with his right-thinkers.

The commission was originally established to have the governor select three members, the Florida Bar Association select three and, between them, the final three would be named. So much for that ...

What was not expected in the end was the ruling that, although Rick Scott would not select the new justices, the short list from the nominating commission would stick. So, had Gillum won the race, he’d still be drawing from a Republican deck. Now DeSantis has that list.

That’s the backstory.

Last week, “it” hit the fan when the short-list of 11 applicants was released. There are no African-Americans included.


For the first time in 36 years, Florida will not have a black Supreme Court Justice on the bench.

Opposition has been loud, according to the News Service of Florida. We are the nation’s third largest state with more than 3.5 million black residents. “What message are we sending our kids? That it’s a complete reversal of going back to the days of segregation?” said former state Sen. Arthenia Joyner.

Scott’s spokesman told the press the Governor has no control over whose names come out of elections commission deliberations.

We doubt that. Scott rarely leaves any political charade to chance. And he did appoint every member of the commission.

While his office denies any bias, the numbers seem to dispute that. In Florida 84 percent of judges are white, 9 percent Hispanic and 6.6 percent are black.

That’s not all Scott’s doing. But this is: Gov. Rick Scott put Justice Alan Lawson on the Supreme Court in 2016. He is white. And of the 32 judicial appointments to the state’s five District Courts of Appeal named by Scott, none involved a black judge, according to a brief filed as part of the lawsuit challenging the process of appointment.

Retired Supreme Court Justice James Perry, who is black (and it’s a shame we need to keep making that type of distinction), said “I’m appalled, but not surprised. ... Obviously we are retrogressing instead of progressing.” He continued, “We’re talking about building a wall. We need to build a mirror so we can look in the mirror. The message is clear.”


Governor-elect DeSantis has no fingerprints on this. That should be made clear.

But don’t expect the kinder, gentler Rick Scott you saw portrayed in TV spots in the closing weeks of the election to magically appear in Washington, D.C. He’s a two-faced and calculating politician.

Washington will give him federal dollars, not state, to put his friends to work and put contributors toward the front of the corporate welfare line. He’s not changing his spots. They just got bigger.