The Florida Democrats don’t comment on every Ron DeSantis judicial appointee, but they’re making an exception for Apopka’s Roger Gannam.
Chair Nikki Fried fumed Friday about the alleged extremism of the Liberty Counsel litigator named to the 6th District Court of Appeal, saying that the historically right-wing lawyer would never get confirmed to a federal court.
“This is outrageous,” said FDP Chair Fried. “After Ron threw out a democratically elected State Attorney this week, he has continued his crusade to consolidate the courts and stack the judicial bench with activist judges like Roger Gannam, who has a long history of attacking women’s rights and the LGBTQ+ community.”
“He would never be appointed to a federal bench. How can the people of Florida seriously expect a fair and impartial hearing when he can’t even answer a question about his own biases? He should be nowhere near a courtroom — in Florida or anywhere else.”
Fried’s question regarding biases relates to a South Florida Sun-Sentinel examination of 15 applicants, including Gannam, who vied for the Florida Supreme Court seat Justice Ricky Polston vacated. The Sentinel noted Gannam wrote “N/A,” not applicable, in response to a Judicial Nominating Committee question about whether he would be biased on an issue that might reach the court.
Gannam’s biases seem to be most pronounced on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, as exhibited in a Florida Times Union guest column about the latter in 2015. Gannam argued enforcing equal legal protections of LGBTQ people is “discrimination against people of faith.”
“Sober and rational concerns for modesty, privacy and safety will be recategorized as discrimination under the new and far-from-settled concept of ‘gender identity,’” he wrote. “Boys will be allowed to enter girls’ dressing and shower areas, to expose themselves and view girls in all stages of undress. Domestic abuse shelters must allow biological men who present a female ‘identity’ to sleep in the women’s dormitories.”
“Most insidiously,” he continued, “male predators will use the legal cover of female ‘identity’ to gain unchallenged access to women-only bathrooms and dressing rooms.”
—
Jesse Scheckner contributed reporting.
The post Nikki Fried rips Ron DeSantis’ ‘outrageous’ appeals court judge, says he’d never make a federal court appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
