Florida

• Florida Supreme Court
• Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission

• • 9 members:
    • All appointed by the Governor:
      • 4 members are appointed from a list of nominees by the Board of Governors to the Florida Bar
      • 5 members are directly appointed by the Governor
        • Of these 5, at least 2 must be attorneys.

Terms: 4 years (staggered)

• Commission submits a list of at least three but no more than six persons from which the Governor must choose one.
• An appointed Justice must be confirmed by a retention vote at least one year after taking office in the next general election.
• If the Justice is not retained, the Governor appoints another Justice through the judicial nominating commission.
• At the end of a Justice’s term, the Justice will be subject to a statewide retention election and will continue for another term if the Justice is retained.

Interim Vacancies

• Whenever a vacancy occurs in a judicial office to which election for retention applies, the Governor shall fill the vacancy by appointing for a term, one of not fewer than three persons nor more than six persons nominated by the appropriate judicial nominating commission.
• The nominations shall be made within thirty days from the occurrence of a vacancy unless the period is extended by the Governor for a time not to exceed thirty days. The Governor shall make the appointment within sixty days after the nominations have been certified to the Governor.

• Florida CONST. art. V §§ 10, 11
• Florida CONST. art. V §§ 20
• Fla. Stat. § 43.291