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Ex-Lawmaker Among Judicial Nominees

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The Associated Press

Published: August 15, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - An ex-congressman who helped prosecute former President Bill Clinton at his impeachment trial is one of seven judges and a lawyer who were nominated Thursday for a pair of Florida Supreme Court openings.

A nominating commission sent two slates that otherwise are heavy on judicial experience - five candidates for an at-large position and three for a north Florida seat - to Gov. Charlie Crist after interviewing 50 applicants over three days in Tampa. The panel could have picked up to six nominees for each position.

The strongest political credentials belong to 2nd District Court of Appeal Judge Charles Canady, 54, of Lakeland, an at-large nominee.

On his application, the former Republican legislator and congressman listed Clinton's 1999 Senate impeachment trial as the most significant case he has litigated. The Senate acquitted Clinton on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of power related to his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Canady later served as general counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush and defended Bush's school voucher program, which let children from failing public schools switch to private schools at taxpayer expense. The Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the program was unconstitutional.

Bush appointed Canady to his present post. He's not an "activist" jurist of the kind Bush often criticized, but a conservative who says he gives deference to legislative and executive branch decisions.

"Judges turn aside from their proper role whenever they seek in any way to substitute their own will for the will of the people as reflected in the pertinent statutory and constitutional texts," Canady wrote in his application.

Crist, also a Republican, has expressed similar views.

Other nominees for the at-large position are Circuit Judges Kevin Emas, 50, of Miami, and Jorge Labarga, 55, of West Palm Beach; 5th District Court of Appeal Judge Vincent G. Torpy Jr., 52, of Daytona Beach; and Miami lawyer Edward G. Guedes, 44.

The nominees for the north Florida seat are 1st District Court of Appeal judges Ricky L. Polston, 52, and Peter Webster, 59, both of Tallahassee, and Circuit Judge Waddell Wallace III, 55, of Jacksonville.

Webster and Wallace each had been nominated for both of the last two Supreme Court vacancies, but Bush named justices Raoul Cantero and Kenneth Bell. They quickly became its most reliable conservatives.

Cantero's at-large slot and Bell's north Florida seat are the ones that are vacant. Both are resigning, saying they want to return home, Cantero to Miami and Bell to Pensacola.

Chief Justice Peggy Quince was jointly appointed by Gov. Lawton Chiles and Bush, then governor-elect, in 1998. The other four justices were appointed by Chiles, a Democrat.

Two will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 next year, which would give Crist an unprecedented opportunity to appoint a majority of the Supreme Court in his first term. He has 60 days to fill the current vacancies.

Cantero, born in Spain to Cuban parents, was Florida's first Hispanic justice and Crist could name another. Labarga was born in Cuba and Guedes' parents immigrated from there.

Asked about the lack of women or more ethnic minorities among the nominees, Crist said, "I've got several concerns about it, so I'm looking at what my options might be." One would be to ask the nominating commission to try again.

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