Letters: Gov. DeSantis' Florida Supreme Court pick falls short

Gov. DeSantis' High Court pick falls short

Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Renatha Francis, is expected to be given a seat on the Florida Supreme Court. She has little if any qualifications for the job, except that she is a woman, Jamaican and Black. If that's the issue, there were far more qualified applicants.

Judge Francis' tenure as a trial judge is only noteworthy because she has done nothing noteworthy. Unless one thinks joining The Federalist Society, which has become mandatory for every judicial applicant during the DeSantis and Scott regimes. Francis has barely been a lawyer long enough to meet the minimum requirement to be a judge.

As a lawyer, Francis' resume suggests she probably could not try a complicated lawsuit as lead counsel. Her appellate court experience out of law school was as a law clerk, and it is baffling that she would be singled out for a seat on the state's highest appeals court. Gov. DeSantis has made a number of ideologically based judicial appointments, but if Judge Francis gets the job, hers will be the worst of the worst.

David Kahn, Boca Raton

Women see clock turning back

The Palm Beach County chapter of the National Organization for Women was founded by professors at Florida Atlantic University in 1973, the same year American women received reproductive freedom in the Roe V. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision. Now it appears this court will bring us back to the years when women died, especially poor women, from illegal abortions.

Some state legislators, funded by tax-exempt organizations, will go back to placing more controls on women’s lives, and religious organizations with taxpayer-funded resources and protections will impose their convictions. Many also do not believe in sex education, birth control and reproductive health care. Supportive services for mothers, like paid family leave offered by almost all other nations will continue to be denied as too costly and unnecessary. Child care and child safety protections that now are wholly inadequate and underfunded will result in more child abuse and deaths.

Will we go back to the days of orphanages or will we expand the for-profit foster care programs? Please no. A small minority are dictating what they believe should be the world of American families. This is not freedom.

Sheila Jaffe, Boca Raton

State threat not helping Special Olympics

What were Gov. DeSantis, and Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo thinking when they threatened to sue the Special Olympics for requiring vaccinations for athletes and workers? The Special Olympics brings organized sports and healthcare screenings to individuals with developmental disabilities. Many of these athletes have conditions, like diabetes, asthma and heart conditions.

As a volunteer since 2012, I’ve joyously watched these athletes excel in sports and receive free health screenings. I am vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, However,  as the Olympics buckled to Gov. Desantis’ and Dr. Lapado’s intimidations, volunteers and athletes alike ventured into crowds unmasked. I along with countless others contracted COVID-19 at the Games. We likely will never find out how deadly this policy was for this event turned super-spreader among a vulnerable population returning home with medals and very likely COVID-19. To politicize a special event for our most vulnerable in society is despicable.

Signe Miller, West Palm Beach

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Judge Renatha Francis as High Court pick falls way short of the mark