C. Alan Lawson
C. Alan Lawson was a judge of the Florida Supreme Court. He assumed office on December 31, 2016. He left office on August 31, 2022.
Lawson ran for re-election for judge of the Florida Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 6, 2018.
Lawson was appointed to the state supreme court by Gov. Rick Scott (R) on December 16, 2016, following Justice James E.C. Perry's retirement.[1] Lawson retired on August 31, 2022.[2] To learn more about his vacancy, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[3] Lawson received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Lawson was previously a judge on the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal. He was appointed to that court by Republican Governor Jeb Bush in 2006 and was retained by voters in 2008 and 2014.[5] He served as chief judge from 2015 through 2016.
Biography
C. Alan Lawson was born in Lakeland, Florida. He graduated from Tallahassee Community College in 1981 and from Clemson University in 1983. He received his J.D. from Florida State University College of Law in 1987.[5]
Lawson's career experience includes working as an associate and partner at Steel, Hector, & Davis, a law firm, and as a general counsel for Verses Wear, Inc. From 1997 to 2001, Lawson worked as the assistant county attorney in Orange County. He served as a judge on the Ninth Judicial Circuit from 2002 to 2005, and as a judge on the Fifth Judicial Circuit from 2006 to 2016. He served as the chief judge on the Fifth Judicial Circuit between 2015 and 2016, before Gov. Rick Scott (R) appointed him to the Florida Supreme Court.[6]
Elections
2018
- See also: Florida Supreme Court elections, 2018
Florida Supreme Court, C. Alan Lawson's seat
C. Alan Lawson was retained to the Florida Supreme Court on November 6, 2018 with 71.4% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
71.4
|
5,044,890 | ||
No |
28.6
|
2,016,482 | |||
Total Votes |
7,061,372 | ||||
|
|
2014
Lawson was retained to the Fifth District Court of Appeal with 72.6 percent of the vote on November 4, 2014.[7]
Bar evaluation
The Florida Bar conducted a poll of its members regarding the appellate judges up for retention in 2014, and 90% of respondents recommended Lawson for retention.[8]
Appointments
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) appointed Renatha Francis to the Florida Supreme Court on August 5, 2022.[9] Francis succeeded Alan Lawson, who retired on August 31, 2022.[10] Francis was Gov. DeSantis' fourth nominee to the seven-member court.
At the time of the vacancy, state supreme court justices in Florida were selected through assisted appointment with a governor-controlled judicial nominating commission.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[11]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[12]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
C. Alan
Lawson
Florida
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Lawson was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott (R) in 2016. At the time of his appointment, Florida was a Republican trifecta.
Noteworthy cases
One child but two women with parental rights (2012)
The Fifth District Court of Appeal held that the biological mom, who donated an egg that was fertilized, and the birth mother, who received the fertilized egg in her womb, both have parental rights to the child subsequently born. Judge Lawson disagreed, writing that only the birth mother had parental rights because donors of reproductive material agree to relinquish all parental rights upon donation.[13]
State supreme court judicial selection in Florida
- See also: Judicial selection in Florida
The seven justices of the Florida Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. A judicial nominating commission consisting of nine members who are appointed by the governor to four-year terms screens potential judicial candidates.[14] The commission submits a list of three to six nominees to the governor, and the governor must then appoint a judge from the list.[15]
Newly appointed judges serve for at least one year, after which they appear in a yes-no retention election held during the next general election. If retained, judges serve six-year terms.[15] Under the Florida constitution, a judge must retire at age 75; however, a judge who reaches 75 after serving at least half of his or her term may complete that term.[16]
Qualifications
To serve on the court, a judge must be:
- a qualified elector;
- a state resident;
- admitted to practice law in the state for 10 years before assuming the bench; and
- under the age of 75.
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected by peer vote. He or she serves in that capacity for two years.[15]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs, the seat is filled as it normally would be if the vacancy occurred at the end of a judge's term. A judicial nominating commission recommends three to six qualified candidates to the governor, and the governor selects a successor from that list. The new appointee serves for at least one year before running in a yes-no retention election.[15]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
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Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Orlando Sentinel, "Gov. Scott appoints Judge Alan Lawson to Florida Supreme Court," December 16, 2016
- ↑ Court News Florida, "Justice Alan Lawson Announces His Retirement from the Florida Supreme Court," April 29, 2022
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal, "Judge Alan C. Lawson," accessed July 1, 2021
- ↑ Florida Supreme Court, "Justice Alan Lawson," accessed July 1, 2021
- ↑ Florida Division of Elections, "Candidate Listing for 2014 General Election," accessed June 13, 2014
- ↑ The Florida Bar, "2014 Merit Retention Poll," accessed July 1, 2021
- ↑ Governor of Florida, "Governor Ron DeSantis Appoints Judge Renatha Francis to Serve on the Florida Supreme Court," August 5, 2022
- ↑ Tampa Bay Times, "Justice Alan Lawson to retire from Florida Supreme Court," April 29, 2022
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Fox News, "Same-sex custody battle could change Florida law," March 4, 2012
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Florida; Judicial Nominating Commissions," archived January 13, 2012
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial selection: Florida," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ Florida Constitution, "Article V, Section 8," accessed September 10, 2021
Federal courts:
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Florida, Southern District of Florida • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Florida, Southern District of Florida
State courts:
Florida Supreme Court • Florida District Courts of Appeal • Florida Circuit Court • Florida County Court
State resources:
Courts in Florida • Florida judicial elections • Judicial selection in Florida
