Congratulations to former Republican congressman, and sitting state appellate judge, Charles Canady, whom Florida governor Charlie Crist appointed last week to the Florida supreme court. And special kudos to Governor Crist who had the courage not to surrender in the face of unseemly political gamesmanship by the state judicial selection commission (see sixth paragraph of this Wall Street Journal editorial). As a reader familiar with the shenanigans of the Florida judicial selection commission has explained it to me, the commission has a history of “gaming things in a particularly nasty way by blocking any conservative women or minorities who apply so that the Governor has to just pick white males or go with liberal minorities and women.”
With three more seats to fill soon, Governor Crist has a historic opportunity to turn a court that liberal judicial activist Rosemary Barkett once headed—and a court that performed so poorly in the 2000 election cases—into a court with a working majority of justices who will practice judicial restraint. Let’s hope that he continues to make high-quality picks.