Thomas Wade Young - Trials & Appeals

In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Jorge Labarga, the Florida Supreme Court determined that Governor Crist exceeded his constitutional authority in refusing to appoint one of six judicial nominees certified by the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Fifth District Court of Appeal. The nominees, who included two women and four men, are all white. Governor Crist deemed the pool of nominees insufficiently diverse, even though only one woman currently serves on the Fifth District Court of Appeal and no woman has been appointed to that court since 1990. The case challenging the governor’s failure to fill the vacant position on the court of appeal was filed by the judge whose retirement created the vacancy, The Honorable Robert J. Pleus, Jr. The Supreme Court’s opinion is available here.