Voters have an opportunity to send a message to Gov. Ron DeSantis come Nov. 5 when two of the state’s Supreme Court justices face retention votes.
We urge voters to reject Justice Renatha Francis and Justice Meredith Sasso.
These two justices do not deserve to continue to be on the Supreme Court. Not because they’re conservative — that’s a given.
But instead, their decision to attempt to strike Amendment 4 from the ballot this year, which would have deprived Floridians the opportunity to make their voices heard on the issue of abortion.
Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel have also urged voters to reject these two justices.
Most likely it won’t make any difference since no appellate judge or Supreme Court judge has ever lost their job on a retention vote. More so, DeSantis will get to name their replacement.
But we should still send a message.
Earlier this year the court, in a 6-1 ruling, allowed the 6-week ban on abortion to take effect. Soon after the court, in a 4-3 ruling, barely decided that it should get to vote on Amendment 4.
Francis wrote in the dissent: “One must recognize the unborn’s competing right to life, and the state’s moral duty to protect that life.”
This is not based on any legal reasoning. Instead, she and the other dissenting justices are injecting their own morality into our justice system.
That’s dangerous.
“In fact, and most troubling, it was the three recently elevated Gov. Ron DeSantis appointees — all women — who expressed their views that the voters should not be allowed to vote on the amendment because it could affect the rights of the unborn child,” wrote Barbara Pariente, a former Florida Supreme Court Justice, for Slate.
Francis knows if Floridians add abortion rights to the constitution, it’ll make her job much more difficult to find a way to limit abortion.
We fear her rulings will get even more absurd though — trying to find any loophole possible to overturn the people’s intent.
There is no major effort to educate voters on these two retention votes this year — most likely because activists are more focused on passing Amendment 4.
But even if it’s a long shot, we still urge you to reject these justices.
