Merit retention of Judges in Florida asks the voters to decide if they should be retained (They are appointed, not elected initially). I decided to vote “NO” on the following judges: Carlos G. Muñiz, Jamie Grosshans, and Meredith Sasso.
These are the news articles and resources I used to make my “No” decisions.
Defend our courts, vote “NO” on poor performing judges Muniz….
“Muñiz posted only 71 percent approval overall, and only 63 percent among those lawyers who said they have “considerable” knowledge of him. Those are the worst ratings for a justice since Joseph A. Boyd Jr., a figure in the Supreme Court scandal, scored 56 percent in 1980.”
You can see the ratings yourself here:
https://www.floridabar.org/public/faircts/votes010/votes003/
Politicized process sped Jaime Grosshans’ rise to Florida Supreme Court, critics say
“While her judicial track record is limited, Grosshans, a replacement pick by Gov. Ron DeSantis after the state’s high court rejected his first choice for being unqualified, has represented anti-abortion groups and been involved with fundamentalist Christian organizations that oppose abortion, homosexuality and same-sex marriage as immoral.”
Grosshans is a member of the Christian Legal Society and a Blackstone Fellow of the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.
(Note: Because Ron DeSantis appointed Grosshans to the Florida Supreme Court, voting no here is mostly a political statement, but remember her name which will be be on the 2022 ballot for retention to the Supreme Court.)
For judges without much controversy, I generally look at the Merit Retention Poll by the Florida Bar Association
https://www.floridabar.org/public/faircts/votes010/votes003/
Meredith Sasso has low ratings from the lawyers, but no specific controversy that I could find (unlike Grosshans and Muñiz) to explain the low ratings. However, I figure if her ratings are in the same camp as the other two I voted against, I guess I’ll vote no on her and hope whoever gets appointed is better.
From My News 13: https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/politics/2020/01/23/meet-the-candidates-to-be-the-next-florida-supreme-court-justices
“Meredith Sasso – Sasso serves as district judge for the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach. Before that she worked as deputy and assistant general counsel for Gov. Rick Scott, and then as a trial attorney for Sanabria, Llorente et al. She got her law degree from University of Florida. She’s a member of the Federalist Society.”
