Florida Access to Justice Project urges legislature to reject latest attack on courts – judicial term limits

As Florida lawmakers prepare to consider a measure that would impose term limits on state appellate judges, Progress Florida Executive Director Mark Ferrulo issued the following statement on behalf of the Florida Access to Justice Project.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 13, 2016

Contact: Damien Filer / 850-212-1858 / Damien@ProgressFlorida.org 

TALLAHASSEE – As Florida lawmakers prepare to consider a measure that would impose term limits on state appellate judges, Progress Florida Executive Director Mark Ferrulo issued the following statement on behalf of the Florida Access to Justice Project: 

“This term-limit proposal is another transparent attempt at a power grab by politicians who want to weaken our courts. Partisans in Tallahassee have been attacking our court system for years now. Fortunately the voters of Florida have seen through and rejected their efforts every time. We don’t need to limit the terms of the judges on our highest courts:  we need experienced, seasoned jurists on the bench, and we need to keep politics out of our judicial system.”   

Lawmakers are expected to take up bills (CS/HJR 197, SJR 322) providing for a proposed constitutional amendment that would create 12-year term limits for judges and justices on Florida’s Supreme Court and District Courts of Appeal. Judges on these courts would be allowed no more than two six-year terms. 

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