‘Judge-shopping’ case demands more answers | Letters to the editor

Your article concerning the contested reelection of Broward Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips was excellent but still leaves important questions left to be answered.

Let me begin by stating that I am an unabashed supporter of Judge Phillips. As a trial lawyer for almost 50 years, I have appeared and tried cases before literally hundreds of trial judges throughout the state.

I have served as chair of the Judicial Qualifications Commission that oversees the conduct of judges and served as a chair of a Judicial Nominating Commission. In my opinion, Judge Phillips ranks in the top 5% of all judges I have appeared before.

She deserves to be reelected  — unopposed!

The questions that still need to be addressed are the very ones you attempted to get answers to.

Why would a lawyer who has practiced law for only 10 years and who, to my knowledge, has never lived in Broward County or practiced law in Broward County, seek to be elected to our trial bench?

Why would her campaign, and her attorney parents, refuse to answer pertinent questions posed by the newspaper of record in Broward, the Sun Sentinel, concerning the motives behind her candidacy?

Why does she believe she’s qualified to serve as a circuit judge in Broward — or, for that matter, anywhere in the state?

I agree with Professor Anthony Alifieri: This is an elaborate attempt to “judge shop” at the expense of the citizens of Broward County.

This campaign seems to be a manipulation of the legal system to get Judge Phillips to recuse herself because her parents didn’t like a ruling the judge made. To me, as a long-time trial lawyer, their failure to take an appeal is an admission that Judge Phillips’ ruling was in fact correct.

I hope the editorial board of this newspaper demands answers to the questions already posed, but avoided, to the candidate and her parents.

Miles A. McGrane III, Fort Lauderdale 

The writer is a former president of the Florida Bar (2003-04).

Backsliding in education

A few years ago, Florida public schools ranked second in the nation in Advanced Placement (AP) scores. Now, Florida is backsliding. The state is unwilling to invest in experienced teachers, so many are leaving. Today’s classes are staffed with inexperienced instructors, and some AP classes are cancelled.

Teachers’ unions were never strong in Florida, but they had advantages. Florida’s right-to-work law stifles unions, weakens collective bargaining and decreases teacher pay while increasing demands on underpaid, stressed providers. The profession stays on life support by lowering professional standards. Teacher morale is at its lowest point in decades. Books and theories are banned, empowering the unqualified to oversee the educated.

With its $8,000 school vouchers, Florida is gifting the privileged at the expense of the disadvantaged, creating an apartheid education system that uses public money to fund costly private enclaves. Tax dollars support religious education — a mockery of the First Amendment.

What average family with an $8,000 voucher can go to an elite private school where tuition ranges from $15,000 to $30,000 a year?

By berating the public schools they run, are Florida’s leaders covering their maleficence with grants of tax money?

Phil Beasley, Plantation

Playing it down

I’m tired of hearing “This country was better off four years ago under Trump than it is today under Biden.”

On Feb. 26, 2020, at a White House press briefing, then-President Donald Trump said: “This is like a flu. It’s a little like a regular flu that we have shots for.”

On March 19, 2020, in an interview, Trump said: “I always wanted to play it down. I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create a panic.”

By March 26, 2020, the U.S. surpassed China and Italy with the world’s highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

I’m left to wonder: How many people in this country died of COVID-19 because Trump intentionally downplayed that hideous disease?

Mike Rice, Wellfleet, Mass.