Carlos Muñiz
2019 - Present
2027
6
Carlos Muñiz is a judge of the Florida Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 22, 2019. His current term ends on January 5, 2027.
Muñiz ran for re-election for judge of the Florida Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 3, 2020.
Muñiz was elected by his peers to serve as chief justice of the court starting July 1, 2022.[1]
Muñiz was appointed to the state supreme court by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on January 22, 2019, following the retirement of Justice Peggy Quince.[2][3] To learn more about this appointment, click here. He was retained by voters in 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 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.[4] Muñiz received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[5] Click here to read more about this study.
Muñiz had not served as a judge before his appointment to the state supreme court.[6] Before his appointment, he served as general counsel of the United States Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos (R), deputy attorney general to state Attorney General Pam Bondi (R), and deputy general counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush (R).[3]
Biography
Muñiz was born on June 25, 1969. He graduated from Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1987 and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in 1991.[7][6] Muñiz received a law degree from Yale University in 1997, during which time he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.[6]
Throughout his career, Muñiz worked as deputy general counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and policy director of the Republican Party of Florida. He also served as general counsel for the state Department of Financial Services and as deputy chief of staff and counsel in the Florida House of Representatives for then-Speaker Marco Rubio (R).[8]
In 2011, Muñiz became deputy state attorney general to Pam Bondi (R), a position he held until 2014, at which point he joined the law firm McGuireWoods as a partner.[9][10] In 2017, President Donald Trump (R) appointed Muñiz to the position of general counsel of the United States Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos (R).[11] Muñiz remained in that position until Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to the Florida Supreme Court on Jan. 22, 2019.[3]
Elections
The section below details Muñiz's judicial appointments and retention elections throughout his career.
2020
- See also: Florida Supreme Court elections, 2020
Muñiz was retained by voters on November 3, 2020, receiving 65.7% of the vote.
Florida Supreme Court
Carlos Muñiz was retained to the Florida Supreme Court on November 3, 2020 with 65.7% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
65.7
|
6,297,753 | ||
No |
34.3
|
3,281,468 | |||
Total Votes |
9,579,221 | ||||
|
|
Campaign finance
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Carlos Muñiz did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Appointments
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appointed Muñiz to the Florida Supreme Court on January 22, 2019, following the retirement of Justice Peggy Quince.[2]
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.[12]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[13]
- 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.
Carlos
Muñiz
Florida
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Held political office as a Republican
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
Partisan Profile
Details:
Muñiz served as general counsel to the U.S. Department of Education under President Donald Trump (R) from 2018-2019. He also served as deputy attorney general and chief of staff under Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R). Muñiz was a registered Republican prior to 2020. He donated $1,109 to Republican candidates and organizations. Muñiz was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2019. At the time of his appointment, Florida was a Republican trifecta.
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
Footnotes
- ↑ 10 Tampa Bay, "Florida Supreme Court elects Carlos G. Muñiz as new chief justice," accessed July 7, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tampa Bay Times, "This Florida Supreme Court justice is up for retention. So who is he?" Oct. 12, 2020
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Florida Supreme Court, "Justice Carlos G. Muñiz," accessed June 30, 2021
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Florida Bar, "Muniz Joins the Supreme Court," Jan. 22, 2019
- ↑ [https://www.facebook.com/bishopiretonHS/photos/congratulations-to-1987-graduate-carlos-muniz-who-was-recently-confirmed-by-the-/10155383148071027/ Facebook, "Bishop Ireton High School," April 25, 2018[
- ↑ Office of the Governor of Florida, "Governor Ron DeSantis Appoints Carlos Muñiz to the Florida Supreme Court," January 22, 2019
- ↑ Florida Politics, "Ron DeSantis appoints Carlos Muñiz to Florida Supreme Court," accessed June 30, 2021
- ↑ McGuireWoods, "Media Outlets Report on McGuireWoods Alum Carlos Muñiz’s Appointment to Florida Supreme Court," Feb. 5, 2019
- ↑ Congress.gov, "PN568 — Carlos G. Muniz — Department of Education," accessed June 30, 2021
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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
