Florida Supreme Court elections, 2022
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The terms of five Florida Supreme Court justices expired in 2023. Three judicial terms expired on January 2, 2023, and two judicial terms expired on January 3, 2023. The five seats were up for retention election on November 8, 2022. The filing deadline was April 29, 2022.[1]
Florida was one of 30 states that held elections for state supreme court in 2022. That year, 84 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts were up for election. Of those, 64 were held by nonpartisan justices, 13 were held by Republican justices, and eight were held by Democratic justices. For more on the partisan affiliation of state supreme court justices, click here. For an overview of state supreme court elections in 2022, click here.
Candidates and results
Canady's seat
Florida Supreme Court, Charles Canady's seat
Charles Canady was retained to the Florida Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 64.0% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
64.0
|
4,358,437 | ||
No |
36.0
|
2,455,875 | |||
Total Votes |
6,814,312 | ||||
|
|
Couriel's seat
Florida Supreme Court, John D. Couriel's seat
John Daniel Couriel was retained to the Florida Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 63.7% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
63.7
|
4,305,014 | ||
No |
36.3
|
2,457,705 | |||
Total Votes |
6,762,719 | ||||
|
|
Grosshans' seat
Florida Supreme Court, Jamie Rutland Grosshans' seat
Jamie Rutland Grosshans was retained to the Florida Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 63.8% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
63.8
|
4,306,135 | ||
No |
36.2
|
2,439,942 | |||
Total Votes |
6,746,077 | ||||
|
|
Labarga's seat
Florida Supreme Court, Jorge Labarga's seat
Jorge Labarga was retained to the Florida Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 62.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
62.3
|
4,197,872 | ||
No |
37.7
|
2,535,034 | |||
Total Votes |
6,732,906 | ||||
|
|
Polston's seat
Florida Supreme Court, Ricky Polston's seat
Ricky Polston was retained to the Florida Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 63.0% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
63.0
|
4,240,078 | ||
No |
37.0
|
2,486,947 | |||
Total Votes |
6,727,025 | ||||
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|
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Florida
Campaign finance
Florida Supreme Court
About the Florida Supreme Court
- See also: Florida Supreme Court
There are seven justices on the Florida Supreme Court. Justices are selected using the assisted appointment method, where the Governor of Florida chooses from a list of three to six candidates recommended by a commission on judicial appointments. Justices serve six-year terms. The appointment of a justice must be confirmed by a retention vote in the next general election at least one year after taking office.[2]
Political composition
This was the political composition of the supreme court heading into the 2022 election. Justices on the Florida Supreme Court are appointed to their seats.
| ■ Charles Canady | Appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist (R) in 2008 | |
| ■ Jorge Labarga | Appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist (R) in 2009 | |
| ■ John D. Couriel | Appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2020 | |
| ■ Renatha Francis | Appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2022 | |
| ■ Jamie Rutland Grosshans | Appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2020 | |
| ■ Carlos Muñiz | Appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2019 | |
| ■ Ricky Polston | Appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist (R) in 2008 |
Selection
- See also: Assisted appointment
The seven justices of the Florida Supreme Court are selected using the assisted appointment method. A judicial nominating commission screens potential judicial candidates, submitting a list of three to six nominees to the governor. The governor must appoint a justice from this list.[3] If a midterm vacancy occurs, the seat is filled as it normally would be if the vacancy occurred at the end of a justice's term.
Newly appointed justices serve for at least one year, after which they appear in a yes-no retention election held during the next general election. If retained, justices serve six-year terms.[3]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a justice must be:
- a qualified elector;
- a state resident;
- admitted to practice law in the state for 10 years prior to assuming the bench; and
- under the age of 70.
Selection of the chief justice
The chief justice is selected by peer vote. He or she serves in that capacity for two years.[3]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters (2021)
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters, a study on how state supreme court justices decided the cases that came before them. Our goal was to determine which justices ruled together most often, which frequently dissented, and which courts featured the most unanimous or contentious decisions.
The study tracked the position taken by each state supreme court justice in every case they decided in 2020, then tallied the number of times the justices on the court ruled together. We identified the following types of justices:
- We considered two justices opinion partners if they frequently concurred or dissented together throughout the year.
- We considered justices a dissenting minority if they frequently opposed decisions together as a -1 minority.
- We considered a group of justices a determining majority if they frequently determined cases by a +1 majority throughout the year.
- We considered a justice a lone dissenter if he or she frequently dissented alone in cases throughout the year.
Summary of cases decided in 2020
- Number of justices: 7
- Number of cases: 110
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 86.4% (95)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justice Lawson (5)
- Per curiam decisions: 96
- Concurring opinions: 22
- Justice with most concurring opinions: Justice Labarga (16)
- Dissenting opinions: 16
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Labarga (7)
For the study's full set of findings in Florida, click here.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
- See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation, based on a variety of factors. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on the political or ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. To arrive at confidence scores we analyzed each justice's past partisan activity by collecting data on campaign finance, past political positions, party registration history, as well as other factors. The five categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[4]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
We used the Confidence Scores of each justice to develop a Court Balance Score, which attempted to show the balance among justices with Democratic, Republican, and Indeterminate Confidence Scores on a court. Courts with higher positive Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Republican Confidence Scores, while courts with lower negative Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Democratic Confidence Scores. Courts closest to zero either had justices with conflicting partisanship or justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores.[5]
Florida had a Court Balance Score of 7.57, indicating Republican control of the court. In total, the study found that there were 15 states with Democrat-controlled courts, 27 states with Republican-controlled courts, and eight states with Split courts. The map below shows the court balance score of each state.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Florida Division of Elections, "Qualifying Information," Webpage last updated: November 18, 2021
- ↑ Supreme Court Overview
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial selection: Florida," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ The Court Balance Score is calculated by finding the average partisan Confidence Score of all justices on a state supreme court. For example, if a state has justices on the state supreme court with Confidence Scores of 4, -2, 2, 14, -2, 3, and 4, the Court Balance is the average of those scores: 3.3. Therefore, the Confidence Score on the court is Mild Republican. The use of positive and negative numbers in presenting both Confidence Scores and Court Balance Scores should not be understood to that either a Republican or Democratic score is positive or negative. The numerical values represent their distance from zero, not whether one score is better or worse than another.
Federal courts:
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Florida, Southern District of Florida • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Florida, Southern District of Florida
State courts:
Florida Supreme Court • Florida District Courts of Appeal • Florida Circuit Court • Florida County Court
State resources:
Courts in Florida • Florida judicial elections • Judicial selection in Florida
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