Citizen group launches Florida Judicial Review website to discuss Sunshine State's judiciary
Citizen2Citizen, group that helped coordinate the recent campaign to remove Labarga and Perry from the Florida Supreme Court launches FloridaJudicialReview.com as legal showdown over judiciary looms.
- Orlando, FL (1888PressRelease) March 21, 2011 - Citizen2Citizen, the group that helped coordinate the recent campaign to remove Justices Jorge Labarga and James Perry from the Florida Supreme Court, has partnered with the Florida Political Press in creating a new website called the Florida Judicial Review to discuss Florida's judicial system and judges facing merit retention. The website was launched at http://www.FloridaJudicialReview.com.
"During the last election people were frustrated by how difficult it was to find information about the judges on the ballot," says Jesse Phillips, the founder of Citizen2Citizen. "Judges facing re-election benefit from how the Florida Bar effectively quiets the legal community and keeps Floridians in the dark. Voters have a serious constitutional responsibility to confirm or overturn judicial appointments but so often lack the necessary information to do that wisely."
Phillips believes the merit retention system has become nothing more than a rubber stamp and formality. He contends that extensive code of conduct and an unwillingness to dismiss petty charges against lawyers effectively censors those who might otherwise provide a greater degree of information to the public to help Floridians make decisions when voting on judges.
The stage seems to be set for a legal showdown over judicial power. State lawmakers are seeking a number of reforms to provide greater accountability to the courts. The Florida Bar, however, has vowed opposition to such reforms. President Mayanne Downs emailed the entire Bar association promising to unleash the group's full lobbying power to mitigate against any changes to the court system by the newly elected congress. "The Florida Bar has an experienced advocacy team," Downs said in an email to lawyers statewide. "Bar leadership and dedicated volunteers are actively involved as well."
Grassroots activists are critical of the Bar, however. "The judiciary assessments from the Florida Bar are not voter friendly and fail to provide critically needed information to allow citizens to make informed decisions," said Tom Tillison, Florida Political Press Editor-In-Chief. "The Florida Judicial Review is sorely needed and will be an extremely valuable tool for all registered voters."
The website is billed as a follow-up to the historic voter education campaign against Justices Labarga and Perry last fall. Although the grassroots effort to unseat the justices began just six weeks prior to Election Day, Justice Labarga received the fewest votes of any Justice in Florida history. Perry and Labarga received 6 and 8 percentage points fewer than Justice Canady, respectively.
"With less than 6 weeks preparation and a mere word-of-mouth, unfunded campaign, we were able to shave off 8 percent of Justices Labarga & Perry's merit retention vote in November 2010," said Jason Hoyt of the Central Florida Tea Party Council. "With the help of FloridaJudicialReview.com, we'll be able to equip and grow our informed electorate and really focus on judicial accountability in 2012."
The group hopes to continue to build on the momentum created by the campaign and to capitalize on the renewed public interest in Florida's judiciary. Florida is not the only state in which justices face growing disapproval. Last November, voters in Iowa removed three members of its state Supreme Court. Florida's high court has three of its members up for retention in 2012.
The Florida Judicial Review allows anyone to register as a contributor and will target citizens in districts throughout the state to write and share information on judges and provides a phone number that lawyers and other members of the legal community can call to discuss various issues in confidence.
Contact: Jesse Phillips
jphillips ( @ ) citizen2citizen dot us
(407) 494-0316
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