by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Tallahassee — When one of the landmark cases of the 2000 presidential election landed in Circuit Court Judge Nikki Ann Clark’s courtroom, Republicans called her a Democratic stooge. After she ruled, Democrats complained she was a shill for the Republicans and a traitor to the party.
Three years later, Clark said the Seminole County case served as a lesson for members of the media and the public who often confuse a judge’s politics with their jurisprudence.
Clark, along with fellow Circuit Judge Terry Lewis wrote the famous, (infamous, according to Democrats) Lewis and Clark decision, which essentially ended Al Gore’s challenge to the Florida presidential election. She told a room full of television and print journalists gathered at The Florida Bar recently that media emphasis on the two judges’ politics helped turn the recount into a fiasco that still haunts the State’s electoral system.
“A judge’s decision is only as good as what you all report,” said Clark. “A goofy decision reflects poorly on all of us; unfortunately a good decision that’s reported to be goofy still reflects on the rest of us.
“Conversely, when reporters do their job right, we gain the confidence of the public.”
When she was announced as judge over a Seminole County case, which alleged that Republican election officials tampered with absentee ballots cast for then Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Clark said the press always followed her name with details of her appointment — she was appointed by Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles — and a perceived falling out with Jeb Bush. The Republican governor and candidate’s brother had recently passed over Clark for promotion to the District Court.
“There was a lot more written about my political philosophy than my judicial record,” said Clark. “I was described as falling somewhere left of Jesus politically.”
Those descriptions obscured a balanced record of jurisprudence, said Clark. In the year preceding the election, Clark ruled against a Bush–backed tort reform law and dismissed a case brought against drug store chain Rite–Aid by Democratic Attorney General Bob Butterworth.
To astute judicial observers, said Clark, it should have come as no surprise that she ruled to allow the disputed ballots.
That opinion was co–authored by Terry P. Lewis, also a Chiles appointee and an admitted Democrat.
Like everybody else, judges have their opinions, said Lewis. But those opinions don’t guide their decisions he said.
“Judges are human beings; certainly we have viewpoints,” said Lewis. “But questions about a judge’s stance on abortion or gay marriage miss the point. The only question that matters is: can you set aside your opinions and make a decision based on law and the facts of the case?”