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Q&A – How Often Florida Federal Judge Walker Has Decisions Overturned
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Today’s Entry: Brian- DeSantis sounded pretty confident Walker’s decision would be overturned but your guest said the exact opposite. What’s your take?
Bottom Line: Today’s question is about last week’s decision by federal Judge Mark Walker to overturn numerous aspects of last year’s election integrity legislation in Florida. Citing race as the decisive factor in his decision, Walker not only took out key provisions – in last year’s law – he also stated the state legislature needed “preclearance” from his court before attempting to pass future voter related legislation. In reaction, Governor DeSantis said this decision from the Obama-appointed Judge was expected and suggested he was confident the law would be upheld on appeal. Quoting DeSantis... This is a judicial equivalent of just pounding the table. I think it was performative partisanship. Now, my initial take having extensively covered this law last year, and knowing there’s nothing inherently racist about a law which states drop boxes must be centrally located within communities and manned with an official at all times when in use – for example – was similar to that of DeSantis. Especially since I’ve covered overturned Walker decisions previously and fairly recently. But to your point, legal expert, and someone I hold in the highest regard, J. Christian Adams of the Public Interest Legal Foundation – told me on Friday his “leadpipe lock” was that Walker’s entire decision wouldn’t be overturned on appeal. I’ll come back to that thought but first here’s background on Judge Walker and a look at his overturned decisions.
Judge Mark Walker is the Chief Judge of the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida. He’s a key figure in Florida decisions as his court overseas Tallahassee, thus the state. Walker was appointed by President Obama to the court December 7th of 2012. He's has clashed with Florida’s two governors, Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis during his tenure. In Fact, dissention between state law and Walker has become so common there’s currently another Walker decision that’s being considered by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals – the Walker decision to block last year’s Combating Public Disorder law. But rather than focusing on a broad-based net of Walker decisions – for the purpose of this story, I’ll focus on election specific decisions.
In one of his highest profile decisions to date, in 2018, he ruled against the state’s process for the restoration of felon voting rights brought by the League of Women Voters. In the decision, which resembled similar language to last week’s ruling on election integrity, he issued a strongly pointed ruling. The ruling, promptly stayed by the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, left state law in place. In another election ballot decision, in 2020 he sided with Florida’s Democrats who challenged Florida’s Flaw which allows for candidates on a general election ballot to be ordered with the priority going to the candidates in the party of the governor. In that case Walker not only sided with Florida’s Democrats, he stated the law violated two Constitutional Amendments – the first and fourteenth. That ruling didn’t even make it to a hearing of the full 11th Circuit Court. A 3-judge panel preliminarily dismissed the case and Walker’s decision citing the defendants lacked any basis for the case as “none of them proved an injury in fact”. That case in particular is the most interesting to me in the context of this situation because it shows an extreme level of judicial activism.
Judicial activism is a common conversation these days. But context is always key. For example, historically the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has had the reputation of being the most liberal, the most activist Federal Court in the country. It’s been earned as over the past thirty years they’ve had a majority of decisions they’ve issued, which were appealed and heard by the US Supreme Court, overturned. But for the most part that type of track record doesn’t exist with other courts. In the instance of Walker, we have a Judge who has twice ruled state election related procedures were unconstitutional – only to have both of those decisions overturned. And most notably, one which he issued a lengthy explanation as to why not one, but two Constitutional Amendments were violated – including the first – which not only was overturned by a higher court but deemed not even worthy of the Court’s time to consider further. In the other election related decision, he’s issued – during 2018’s recount process in Broward and Palm Beach, he sided with the state – although even then he took unnecessary cracks at then-Governor Rick Scott. So, here’s the scorecard.
The previous rulings on Florida election related law. One in which he sided with the state. Two he ruled against the state but had overturned on appeal. It’s for these reasons my initial thought was that DeSantis’ confidence was warranted, that the state would win on appeal. But back to J. Christian Adams and the Public Interest Legal Foundation. J. is a rock-solid Constitutionalist and has been engaged in Florida’s public policy legal affairs over the years. Including the 2018 recount fiasco. I like to say that smart people know what they know and know what they don’t. I know enough about Constitutional law to be dangerous. J. Christian Adams is a highly credible expert I personally trust. If he says that at least some of Walker’s decision will remain intact – meaning some of Florida’s law will be blocked, I’m inclined to believe him. We’ll know with time, which is of the essence with this case being appealed in a mid-term election cycle.