Opinion: Backward choice in Hawkes

No other governor since Claude R. Kirk Jr., more than 30 years ago, has had or even sought the opportunity that Jeb Bush now possesses to manipulate Florida's courts. The Legislature has allowed him to name all the members of the judicial nominating commissions, a power previously shared with the Florida Bar and with the commissions themselves. Evidence is now in on what a mistake that was. Exhibit A: the appointment this week of Paul Hawkes to the 1st District Court of Appeal.

Only the Supreme Court is more important. While all five districts hear appeals from lower courts, the 1st, at Tallahassee, also is the destination for most appeals arising from state agency decisions as well as for many cases testing the constitutionality of new laws. The judges there should be legal scholars foremost, politicians last if at all. In picking Hawkes, Bush got it backward.

Hawkes is a former state representative who has spent the last two years as chief of policy for the speaker's office, for which he had been a consultant in 1997 and 1998. In those roles, he actively promoted much of Bush's agenda. Former Speakers Tom Feeney and John Thrasher, close allies of the governor, led Hawkes' list of references.

As a practicing lawyer earlier, Hawkes spent enough time in trial courts to qualify, perhaps, for a county or circuit judgeship. But his appellate experience is transparently thin: a couple of cases amounting by his estimate to less than 3 percent of his appearances. It is doubtful that a truly independent commission would have recommended him for a higher court.

The five other nominees included three experienced judges. Bush isn't required to explain why he chose Hawkes, but the political circumstances speak clearly for themselves.