Former anti-public corruption prosecutor to head statewide panel screening judicial candidates

February 27, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Florida’s two U.S. senators today unveiled the makeup of a revamped statewide panel that will pick finalists for presidential appointments to district judgeships, as well as U.S. attorneys and U.S. marshals.

Among the first orders of business for the Florida Judicial Nominating Commission ( JNC ) will be finding potential replacements for retiring Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley, who was appointed to the federal bench in South Florida by former President Bill Clinton in 1994.  Hurley’s retirement with continued service as a senior judge was announced two days ago.  

The JNC also likely will have to recommend a replacement for South Florida’s top federal prosecutor who reportedly may be departing to head the law school at Florida International University.  Alex Acosta was appointed by President Bush to be the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.  He was asked by President Barack Obama to stay on temporarily, though new presidents generally replace U.S. attorneys.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Thursday it’s been the custom in Florida to also revamp membership of the JNC with a new president and new administration.  A new set of rules, worked out by Nelson and Florida’s other U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, are designed to provide a bipartisan template under which the JNC will recommend finalists to the state’s two senators.  The senators will interview each candidate and forward the names to the White House, unless they object to a specific individual’s appointment.

“We have tried to provide a process beyond the reach of partisan politics to help select the top candidates for jobs that involve upholding the public trust,” Nelson said today.

Prominent Tampa lawyer John M. Fitzgibbons, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Middle District of Florida, has been named by Nelson in cooperation with Martinez to head the 56-member JNC that’s divided into three geographic boards, one for each federal judicial district.

Fitzgibbons was an assistant federal prosecutor in Tampa in the 1980s and formerly a lawyer in the U.S. Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section in Washington.
“We can expect John to ensure the same commitment to public service and integrity in all the candidates put forth by the JNC,” Nelson said.

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