Opinion
Triple trifle
TBO.com
Published: July 11, 2012
Florida Supreme Court Justices Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince are up for a merit retention vote this year, and some conservative groups are targeting all three. The justices have been involved in court decisions that have angered some on the right, including ruling proposed state constitutional amendments conservatives have backed off the ballot.Published: July 11, 2012
Last week, second Circuit State Attorney Willie Meggs, in a letter to Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey, wrote that criminal charges against Lewis, Pariente and Quince aren't warranted. In rushing to file for the merit retention vote at the last minute, all three justices used court employees during working hours to notarize their signatures on campaign forms. While Florida statutes bar state employees from doing political work for public officials during work hours, "It is well established that the law does not concern itself with trifles," Meggs wrote in declining to prosecute the justices.
Some Republicans might wonder whether Meggs, a Democrat, would have considered the matter trifling if the three justices had been appointed by a GOP governor, instead of Democrat Lawton Chiles, as was the case with Lewis, Pariente and Quince. If all the three justices did was have public employees notarize their signatures, then Meggs was right to consider this "a minor act" unworthy of prosecution.
Still, we might quibble with Meggs' assertion that this minor act didn't further the justices' retention campaigns. They wouldn't have had much reason to campaign if they had missed the deadline to qualify for the ballot.