Law Office of Frederick C. Morello, P.A.

Please support our judges and the judicial system by contacting your legislators to increase funding to the judiciary. When judges lack sufficient resources to do their jobs, the system suffers.

Also, if you are approached by liberal or conservative groups to recall judges, like recent attempts to recall certain Justices on the Florida Supreme Court, you must consider how this would affect the Judiciary in the long term. Our Florida Supreme Court is the last bastion of justice in our state court system. The Justices there, like all judges, have to make difficult decisions, some of which are unpopular. But the Florida Supreme Court has had a rich history protecting individual rights, despite the political affiliation of the Governor who appointed the Justice. So please research the history and cases from our Florida Supreme Court and understand the importance of an independent Judiciary.

Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul G. Cantero, III sums up these concerns the best when he wrote in March, 2012:

"As I'm sure you know, three current Florida Supreme Court Justices -- JJ. Pariente, Lewis, and Quince -- are up for merit retention this year. As you may also know, for the first time in many years there will be an organized campaign against them. The opposition to their retention stems solely from their votes in one or more cases. While I disagree philosophically with some of their decisions -- and probably dissented from some of the cases that will be held up as examples -- I strongly believe that the merit retention process should be used only to remove judges and justices for cause -- that is, for malfeasance in office. When it becomes a method for making political statements (no matter how close to my own beliefs) I believe that both the political process and the judicial process suffer.

If today we can remove a justice because we consider his decisions too liberal, perhaps tomorrow we can remove another because her views are too conservative. Neither approach is helpful to our democratic process or to respect for the judiciary."