Voters ousted judge who denied an abortion to 'C' student. DeSantis promoted him. | Frank Cerabino

You may have heard that we live in “a citadel of freedom” here in Florida.

Let’s seek some shining illustrations. Hmm. Think, think.

Ah, I have a good one.

Cerabino: DeSantis: Proposed state license plate features warning to "out-of-state cars"

School announcement outside of jail?High cost of politicizing school boards in Florida

DeSantis turns back on his own roots: Immigrant's journey from 1917 echoes in Florida

Take Jared Smith, for example. I wrote about Smith nearly a year ago. He was a circuit court judge in Hillsborough County then, and the author of a ruling in an abortion case that got national attention.

The gist of it was that a 17-year-old girl, identified in court papers as “Jane Doe,” came before his court for something called a “judicial bypass,” which would allow her access to a synthetic hormone pill, a no-surgery option to abortions up to the 10th week of pregnancy.

The girl testified that she was “way too young” to have a baby and financially incapable of motherhood. The girl was working 30 hours per week and had no driver's license because she couldn’t afford the insurance. And her own mother was divorced and living out of state.

The teenager’s goal was to finish high school and join the military, things that wouldn’t be possible with the unwanted pregnancy. She told the judge that while she realized that abortion was against the tenets of her religion, from an emotional viewpoint she didn’t think she could give birth, then put the baby up for adoption.

Judge: Florida high-schooler's 'C' average too low to let her have an abortion | Frank Cerabino

“I’m not going to have a baby for nine months and then get attached,” she testified.

Because she didn’t have parental permission, she needed to get the judicial bypass, which is spelled out in Florida law. It dictates that the judge’s only role in these matters is to decide if the minor is “sufficiently mature to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy.”

And that the girl “need only show that she has the necessary emotional development, intellect and understanding to make an informed decision regarding the termination of her pregnancy.”

Smith denied the girl’s request by zeroing in on her high school grades, which she said was a “C” average, with some “B” grades. The judge called those grades an indication of her “lack of intelligence,” and used that to deny her request for an abortion.

Fortunately for her, Smith wasn’t the final say in the matter. An appellate court ruling overturned his decision, finding that the girl “demonstrated sufficient intelligence and education to read and discuss the information.”

And that a “C” average amounted to “an appropriate level of intelligence” to make this decision for herself, the appeals court ruled.

Smith’s decision to deny abortions to “C” students in high school, by contending that these girls aren’t smart enough to make decisions about their own body autonomy, is pretty twisted. It says, we’ll grant abortions to the smart girls but we’re going to force motherhood on the under-achievers.

Judge's view of student grades doesn't hold up

His decision in this case made Smith vulnerable when he stood for election in November last year. Judicial elections in Florida are non-partisan and sitting judges often run unopposed, unless they make unpopular rulings or get arrested for drunk driving.

Smith’s C-student ruling helped him pick up a challenger in August for his seat on the Hillsborough County Circuit Court.

Nancy Jacobs, a local criminal defense lawyer who had lost twice before in judicial races, filed to run against Smith and gained the support of reproductive rights advocates who blamed Smith for bringing his religious beliefs into the courtroom in the C-student case.

Smith, a deacon in a Baptist church, campaigned with his wife in Christian churches, and made religion a central part of his campaign against Jacobs, who is Jewish.

"We pray for her. She needs Jesus," Smith’s wife said at one church event. "To deny God and to deny the Bible is a person that's — the heart is very hard toward God."

It turned out that adding a dollop of anti-Semitism on top of a rights-denying abortion decision was not a winning combination for the judge. The voters ousted him from the bench by electing Jacobs.

But not for long.

DeSantis steps in to undo voters' decision

Losing his seat on the circuit bench turned out to be a great career move for Smith. Because a couple weeks ago, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Smith to a vacancy on a state appellate court, giving him what amounts to a promotion on a higher court.

Maybe that’s what DeSantis meant during his inaugural speech this past week when he said, “as so many states in our country grinded their citizens down, we in Florida lifted our people up.”

Maybe DeSantis meant lifting up Smith. And as for the citizens who thought they voted him off the bench for embodying extreme views on abortion that limit the freedoms of women, well, I guess they’re enjoying the freedom of knowing that their votes don’t count.

I guess that’s not “grinding citizens down” but freeing them of their civic roles in DeSantistan.

Meanwhile, DeSantis plays everyone as fools.

“We said we would end judicial activism by appointing jurists who understand the proper role of a judge is to apply the law as written, not legislate from the bench — and we delivered,” DeSantis said at his inaugural address this past week.

He probably thinks we’re all a bunch of “C” students.

Frank Cerabino is a columnist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at fcerabino@gannett.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: DeSantis promotes anti-abortion judge weeks after voters ousted him