So You Want to Be a Federal Judge?

Now is the time:

Pursuant to the instructions set forth in the attached letter from Senator Bill Nelson and Senator Marco Rubio, dated February 16, 2012, the Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission is now accepting applications for the following position:

• U.S. District Judge, Southern District of Florida

This vacancy was created by the Senate's recent confirmation of U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

The revised Rules of Procedure for the Judicial Nominating Commission, dated April 11, 2011, application forms with incorporated instructions, and the names and addresses of the members of the Commission, dated February 14, 2012 are available at the following websites: 1) The Florida Bar (www.floridabar.org), 2) District Court for the Northern District of Florida
(www.flnd.uscourts.gov), 3) District Court for the Middle District of Florida (www.flmd.uscourts.gov), and 4) U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (www.flsd.uscourts.gov). In addition, these materials may also be obtained from the Commission's Statewide Chair John M. Fitzgibbons, The Law Offices of John M. Fitzgibbons, 707 North Franklin Street, Suite 700, Tampa, FL 33602, Telephone: (813) 221-8800.

Completed applications must be received by the Commission's Statewide Chair and each Commission member in the manner specified by the Rules of Procedure by 5 p.m., Monday, March 26, 2012. Applicants who are selected by the Commission for personal interviews will be interviewed on Friday, April 27, 2012, at the Judge's Conference Room, 14th Floor, Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. U.S. Courthouse, 400 North Miami Avenue, Miami, Florida. The names of the applicants who are selected for personal interviews with the Commission, as well as the interview times, will be published on each website on or before April 18, 2012.

In other news,  this guy is the reason why everyone has to show up and support the retention of Justices Quince, Lewis, and Pariente at the fundraiser next week:

The retention referendum deciding whether Justices Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince are to keep their jobs for the next six years — or whether Gov. Rick Scott gets to replace them —appears likely to become the most hotly contested judicial elections in more than 20 years.
No justice or District Court of Appeals judge has ever been voted off the bench, since Florida switched from competitive elections to the appoint-and-retain model in 1976, but none has faced the kind of organized effort being mounted by a Central Florida group.

"I wouldn't want a judge thrown off the bench for one bad ruling," said Jesse Phillips, a Winter Park computer programmer who heads Restore Justice 2012. "But what we've seen on the Florida Supreme Court is a pattern of judicial activism."

Phillips cited court rulings removing the Legislature-sponsored Health Care Freedom Act from the ballot in 2010 — a corrected version is back on this year's ballot — and a 2000 ruling that struck a death-penalty constitutional amendment after voters had approved it.

Phillips said his only previous political experience was an unsuccessful 2010 effort to deny Justices Jorge Labarga and James E.C. Perry new six-year terms. Both men survived, but by about 6 percent less than Justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston, who were not challenged for retention.
"It was purely a grass-roots campaign in just a few weeks, and we were able to move the results by six or eight points," said Phillips. "What we're running is a voter-education campaign. We're not telling people to vote yes or no, but laying out the record of the judges."

Let's hope this doesn't become a trend.

Finally, Paul Calli continues to happen.

Happy Friday!