Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t saying which of six finalists advanced by the Judicial Nominating Commission that he wants to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Charles T. Canady.
But he does want a fighter.
“You have to understand the Constitution and how to apply statutes in a constitutionally sound way. But you also have to have courage to be able to do that knowing that liberal media may attack you. You may get blowback for doing the right thing, but you’ve got to be willing to do that,” DeSantis said in Steinhatchee.
Six men are being considered for the opening: Roger Gannam, John Guard, Robert Long, Joshua Mize, Samuel Salario and Adam Tanenbaum.
DeSantis said that after this appointment, he will have appointed six of the seven members of the Supreme Court, and has been able to correct a previous configuration where “a very liberal court … engaged in a lot of judicial somersaults to try to arrive at certain results they favored politically,” which “distorted some of the underlying jurisprudence.”
DeSantis said it’s incumbent upon Justices to have “fidelity to the Constitution and the law, understanding the proper role of the judiciary and a constitutional system of separated powers, but then also having the backbone and the courage to be able to rule properly, knowing that you may get some brushbacks from partisan people in media.”
“You’ve just got to be willing to do that. If you don’t, if you let that factor (into) whether you’re going to do the right thing, you are not going to end up being successful in any of these positions,” DeSantis added. “You’ve got to realize that if you’re over the target, you know, they’re going to fire at you. That’s just the way it is.”
Regardless of who he selects, DeSantis expects the pick and the larger court configuration to have generational impacts, given that the average age of his appointees is 46 and they can serve until they turn 75.
“Some of you will have kids and grandkids that will benefit, I think, from rulings in like 25 years that’ll be constitutionally sound. And so that’s really important. And that was a big problem in this state for a long time. I think we’re in much better stead, but I’m really looking forward to making a strong appointment because I think it gets even better,” DeSantis said.
