by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Jacksonville attorney Joe Milton has been tabbed to lead the state’s Supreme Court Nominating Commission, and if the commission’s services become necessary over the next year, he hopes to keep the process open, fair and free of politics.
The state’s top court is full and expected to stay that way throughout Milton’s one-year term as chairman. But if a vacancy opens up, the Florida Supreme Court Nominating Commission is essentially conducts the job search.
The Commission is charged with culling the best candidates from a typically large applicant pool. The recommendations are forwarded to Gov. Jeb Bush who has the final say in the appointments. The Commission also reviews candidates for Florida’s statewide prosecutor.
At both the state and federal level, appointing judges to the high court has become a politically-charged proposition. Supreme Court justices hand down opinions that have the potential to be the last word spoken on some of the country’s most divisive issues. As a result, candidates receive as much media and political scrutiny for their background as for their jurisprudence.
But Milton, a partner at Milton, Leach, Whitman, D’Andrea, Charek and Milton, does his best to keep politics out of the Commission’s deliberations.
“It’s too important a position to let politics take a decisive role,” said Milton. “The selection of a justice will shape the law of Florida for decades.”
While the Commission tries to keep politics on the sidelines, Milton admits that political considerations can enter the game late. Gov. Bush has to consider a candidate’s political viability, he said.
“We’re concerned with sending the governor the best three to six candidates based strictly on their qualifications,” he said. “At that point politics get involved. So a candidate’s gender or ethnic background might factor into the governor’s selection, but it doesn’t factor into our work.”
Congressional confirmation of judicial appointments at the federal level often turns into guessing games about which side of the political aisle a candidate might fall on hot-button issues. Milton tries to keep such guesswork out of Florida’s selection process.
“I’m not going to ask hypotheticals on some issue that may appear before the court,” he said. “Now, Congress may disagree with me on that, but I disagree with them. I look for professionalism and integrity and then trust them to make a well-reasoned decision on any issue.
“If you look at the latest candidate (nominee to the federal Supreme Court) John Roberts, he has impeccable credentials but now everyone is poring through everything he’s ever written, looking for something to disqualify him. It can have a chilling effect on qualified candidates’ decisions to even apply.”
In fact, Milton said the Commission doesn’t even look at a candidate’s political affiliation.
“We don’t even ask what party they’re with,” he said. “Judges aren’t there to be politicians. When it gets to the governor’s office, I’m sure he finds out the answer though.”
Milton had a say in the last two Bush appointees to Florida’s court. He served on the Nominating Commission in 2002 when Bush appointed Justice Raoul Cantero and Justice Kenneth Bell.
Both of those candidates met the criteria for professionalism and judicial proficiency. Bell was the youngest circuit judge in the history of Florida’s First Judicial Circuit and handled more than 27,500 cases there. Cantero graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and was a Fulbright Scholar.
Milton said recommending a candidate for the Supreme Court goes beyond skill on the bench, however. In fact, the job is unique in the judiciary. While judges at the county and circuit level must primarily be adept at handling cases and juggling a crowded docket, a position on the Supreme Court calls for more study and writing.
“It’s almost a monk-like existence,” he said. “It’s a lot of writing, it’s a more academic atmosphere. The question I always ask is, how is this person going to adjust from daily interaction with lawyers, plaintiffs and defendants to basically working in a closet and seeing the same people all the time.”