Lawsuit against three justices thrown out by court
by John Kennedy | August 8th, 2012A lawsuit by a conservative legal organization seeking to remove from the ballot the last three Florida Supreme Court justices appointed by a Democratic governor was dismissed Wednesday by a Leon County circuit judge.
Judge Terry Lewis sided with a lawyer for Justices Peggy Quince, Fred Lewis and Barbara Pariente, who argued that the Southeastern Legal Foundation and its clients lacked “standing” to challenge whether the justices should appear on the November ballot.
John DeVault, attorney for the justices, said that only a state attorney or the Florida Elections Commission can determine whether a candidate should be removed from the ballot because of wrongdoing.
The justices received help in submitting their qualifying papers in April from staff at the Supreme Court, with assistants notarizing the justices’ documents just minutes before a deadline. The foundation said the move violated a state law barring public employees during working hours from working in the “furtherance” of someone’s candidacy.
Shannon Goessling, chief legal counsel for the foundation, said after Wednesday’s hearing that it planned to appeal Lewis’ ruling to the First District Court of Appeal.
The justices’ qualifying kerfuffle has been seized on by opponents of the three justices, already tarred as a liberal-leaning bloc by a tea party-linked political committee called Restore Justice 2012. The campaign is seeking to make the trio the first Florida justices ever ousted in a merit retention campaign.
August 8th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
Women who vote for Republicans are either misinformed or doing what the bible tells them. That is being subservient to men. Republicans want to take away a woman’s right to choose and appear to be trying to even take away their right to use contraceptives. Republicans have constantly denied women equal pay by voting against legislation that would have given women equal pay for equal work as well. This is just for starters. While I am not advocating that women vote for Democrats, I just wish that they would consider what the Republican party has been doing to them. The Republican party consistently tries to keep women as second class citizens on a permanent basis. Think about it!
August 9th, 2012 at 1:31 pm
I don’t even know the way I stopped up here, however I assumed this post used to be great. I do not know who you might be however certainly you’re going to a well-known blogger if you happen to are not already. Cheers!
August 10th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
have constantly denied women equal pay by voting against legislation that would have given women equal pay