by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Florida Supreme Court Justice Henry Anstead asked students from Florida Coastal School of Law Friday for their help in fighting for an independent judiciary.
The Judicial Branch’s autonomy was one of the great accomplishments of this county’s founding fathers, said Anstead. But one that has been under attack recently by the Legislative and Executive branches, he said.
He asked for students’ help in the campaign during Florida Coastal’s Center for Law and Public Policy 2006 issues forum held at the school’s Beach Boulevard campus. As future officers of the court, they could help keep political influence from creeping into America’s courtrooms, he said.
Anstead is distressed by the willingness of government lawmakers and executives to lob attacks at judges through the media. Unfortunately, the unwelcome attention sometimes has its desired effect, he said. The strategy gained traction in the late 1990s when a New York district judge reversed his own ruling on suppressing evidence in a drug trial following publicized attacks from then-President Bill Clinton and then-Senate majority leader Trent Lott, both lawyers.
“The perception in this case was particularly damaging,” said Anstead. “You have the massive press attention, mostly negative in this case. Then you have the judge reversing his own decision. What are the American people to think?”
But more troubling than the public perception was the reversal’s impact on future disputes. Elected officials took the incident as a precedent for critiquing future decisions that strayed too far from their side of the political aisle.
Anstead is no stranger to the heat generated by the political and media glare. Since rising to the state’s top court in 1994, Anstead has helped preside over political hot button issues like the 2000 presidential election and the Teri Schiavo right to life fight.
The appointment of judges has become more politicized since the state dismantled four years ago a merit-based appointment process established by former Gov. Ruben Askew, said Anstead.
The change reduced the Florida Bar’s influence on picking members of judicial nominating commissions. Now the governor has the authority to pick all nine members of the commission.
“It took us 100 years to get away from political patronage in picking judges,” said Anstead. “Now we’ve gutted the merit-based selection that I believe was the greatest contribution Gov. Askew made to the people of Florida.”
Anstead called the New York reversal and the change to the judicial selection process “two great tragedies” of American jurisprudence. He said the bench needs help from attorneys to help turn back the tide of political encroachment.
It’s easy for elected officials to attack judges and their decisions in the press, but much more difficult for a judge to answer, said Anstead. Judges are typically restricted from commenting on cases in the press.
Lawyers can play a bigger role in crafting that defense, said Anstead. Attorneys also have the benefit of numbers as there are more than 75,000 lawyers in Florida compared to about 700 judges, he added.