Supreme Court of Florida

“ No case in which we have ever 'abstained' from passing on difficult state questions offers the faintest support for the holding that a contention so unlikely to be sustained anywhere can be used as a reason to avoid passing on a constitutional question, even one much more serious than I see the one here to be.
The second state question that the Court is sending back, with the suggestion that the Court of Appeals should refer it to the Florida Supreme Court for decision, is almost equally devoid of plausibility. ”

“ It is abundantly clear that each of the state grounds suggested is either plainly unavailing or so tenuous that it would be disrespectful of the Florida Supreme Court to regard it as the basis of that cout's judgment. ”

“ I On December 8, 2000, the Supreme Court of Florida ordered that the Circuit Court of Leon County tabulate by hand 9,000 ballots in Miami-Dade County. It also ordered the inclusion in the certified vote totals of 215 votes identified in Palm Beach County and 168 votes identified in Miami-Dade County for Vice President Albert Gore, Jr., and Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democratic candidates for President and Vice President. ”

“ There is no reason why the Florida Supreme Court cannot examine the balance struck by the trial judge and decide that the elimination of improperly considered aggravating circumstances could not possibly affect the balance. ”

“ Because it is evident that any recount seeking to meet 3 U. S. C. § 5's December 12 "safe-harbor" date would be unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause, the Florida Supreme Court's judgment ordering manual recounts is reversed. The Clause's requirements apply to the manner in which the voting franchise is exercised. Having once granted the right to vote on equal terms, Florida may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person's vote over that of another. ”

“ In arguing before us that the issues now raised were or were not raised in prior proceedings, the parties have relied somewhat upon cases from this Court to support their arguments. Those decisions are not squarely in point because the issue before us is not one of federal law. The issue before us on res judicata is whether, under Florida law, petitioner was or was not free to raise in the Supreme Court of Florida in 1955 the questions he attempted to raise there. ”

“ This is a singular objection. If the power be unquestioned, it can be a matter of no importance on which ground it is exercised.
The opinion clearly was not obiter dicta. The turning point in the case was, whether Congress had power to authorize the Territorial Legislature of Florida to pass the law under which the Territorial court was established, whose decree was brought before this court for revision. The power of Congress, therefore, was the point in issue.
The word "territory," according to Worcester, "means land, country, a district of country under a temporary Government." ”

“ While the Florida Supreme Court's actual decision in Hill is consistent with the foregoing reasoning, the Court of Appeal's extension of Hill to persons subject by § 1983 to liability is flatly inconsistent with that reasoning and the holdings in both Martinez and Felder. Federal law makes governmental defendants that are not arms of the State, such as municipalities, liable for their constitutional violations. ”

“ No person is eligible for the office of justice of the supreme court or judge of a district court of appeal unless the person is, and has been for the preceding ten years, a member of the bar of Florida. No person is eligible for the office of circuit judge unless the person is, and has been for the preceding five years, a member of the bar of Florida. Unless otherwise provided by general law, no person is eligible for the office of county court judge unless the person is, and has been for the preceding five years, a member of the bar of Florida. ”

“ There can be no doubt that the judging of challenges respecting legislative or executive investigations in this sensitive area demands the utmost circumspection on the part of the courts, as indeed the Florida Supreme Court has itself recognized. ”

“ The privilege of ingress and egress among the States which has been urged in opinions is of hardier stuff. The privilege was to prevent the walling off of States, what has been called the Balkanization of the Nation. The requirement which respondent resists conduces, it merits repetition, toward a free-willed collaboration of independent States.
The more relevant challenge to the statute invalidated by the Supreme Court of Florida is that it denies due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. ”

“ Congress could, at any time, re-enumerate robbery (and any other crimes it might have intended the residual clause to cover) if it so chose. The majority’s decision today, meanwhile–with its endorsement of the mere “potentiality” of injury, see ante, at 11–risks sowing confusion in the lower courts for years to come. ↑ Specifically, hewing to a proper reading of Johnson would also affect Florida’s aggravated robbery statute because the crime’s only element involving force is the one that it shares with Florida simple robbery. ”

“ Stat. § 913.10 (1) (1967) :
"Twelve men shall constitute a jury to try all capital cases, and six men shall constitute a jury to try all other criminal cases."
4 See App. 82.
5 The Supreme Court of Florida had earlier held that it was without jurisdiction to entertain petitioner's direct appeal from the trial court. See id., at 92. Under Florida law, the District Court of Apeal became the highest court from which a decision could be had. See Fla. Const., Art. V, § 4 (2) ; Fla. App. Rule 2.1a (5) (a) ; Ansin v. ”

“ The majority mistakes one anomalous result for a reason not to apply Johnson as it was written.
IV
This Court’s decision in Johnson tells us that when Congress wrote the words “physical force” in the context of a statute targeting “violent felon [ies] ,” it eschewed the common-law meaning of those words and instead required a higher degree of force. See 559 U. S., at 138–143, 145. Johnson resolves this case. Florida law requires no more than minimal force to commit Florida robbery, and Florida law therefore defines that crime more broadly than Congress defined the elements clause. ”

“ Justice WHITE, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE, Justice SCALIA, and Justice KENNEDY join, dissenting.
"It is not our function to decide whether we agree with the majority of the advisory jury or with the trial judge and the Florida Supreme Court." ”

“ The Supreme Court, except in cases otherwise directed in this Constitution, shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which shall be co-extensive with the State, under such restrictions and regulations, not repugnant to this Constitution, as may from time to time be prescribed by law, provided that the said Court shall always have power to issue writs of injunction, mandamus, quo warranto, habeas corpus, and such other remedial and original writs as may be necessary to give it a general superintendence and control of all other Courts. ”

“ While I agree with Justice BLACKMUN's opinion, I think additional criticism of the Court's activism is appropriate. One must wonder why this case merited a grant of certiorari. The judgment of the Florida Supreme Court was obviously correct. Its opinion contained a minor flaw, as countless opinions do. Unless we are to become self-appointed editors of state-court opinions in the criminal law area, that is surely an insufficient reason for exercising our certiorari jurisdiction. ”

“ Courts The judicial power shall be vested in a supreme court, district courts of appeal, circuit courts and county courts. No other courts may be established by the state, any political subdivision or any municipality. The legislature shall, by general law, divide the state into appellate court districts and judicial circuits following county lines. Commissions established by law, or administrative officers or bodies may be granted quasi-judicial power in matters connected with the functions of their offices. ”

“ The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, members of the Cabinet, justices of the Supreme Court, and judges of the circuit court shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office; but judgment in such cases shall extend only to removal from office and disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the State; but the party convicted or acquitted shall nevertheless be liable to indictment, trial, and punishment according to law. ”

“ The question in this case then is whether the constitutional guarantee of a trial by "jury" necessarily requires trial by exactly 12 persons, rather than some lesser number—in this case six. We hold that the 12-man panel is not a necessary ingredient of "trial by jury," and that respondent's refusal to impanel more than the six members provided for by Florida law did not violate petitioner's Sixth Amendment rights as applied to the States through the Fourteenth. ”

“ So much probably would be admitted; but it is said that the clause is merely declaratory of powers which the legislature would have had without it, and which, with or without it, the legislature could cut down by contract. The argument is not without force, but it did not prevail in this case, and we are not prepared to overrule the Florida courts in their interpretation of their own laws. It is entirely possible to read the words as conferring a power which, by their very form, they were meant to make inalienable. ”