January 15, 2017 Letters
Letters
Judicial Term Limits
Whatever the reasons for limiting judges to a 12-year term limit, the result would be the de facto elimination of the judicial branch of government to the status of an administrative agency under the Florida Legislature.
House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s beef with the judiciary seems to stem from his encounters with Florida Supreme Court justices and senior appellate judges who are not afraid to stand up to the Legislature when interpreting the law. (How dare those justices ask us to testify about our intentions when we passed a law!)
To limit circuit and county judges to 12-year terms would result in the trial bench being composed of older lawyers serving on the bench for two terms before retiring from the law and younger lawyers learning on the bench for two terms with tacit agreements to go on board with certain law firms appearing before them.
Hardly the recipe for judicial independence and impartiality.
David P. Carter
Seminole
