DeSantis appoints Adam Tanenbaum to Florida’s Supreme Court

DeSantis appoints Tanenbaum to Florida Supreme Court

Governor Ron DeSantis announced that he is appointing Adam Tanenbaum to the Florida Supreme Court during a news conference at Seminole High School on Wednesday morning. FOX 13's Evan Axelbank reports.

SEMINOLE, Fla. - Governor Ron DeSantis announced that he is appointing Adam Tanenbaum to the Florida Supreme Court during a news conference at Seminole High School on Wednesday morning.

The connection to Seminole High School was personal for Tanenbaum, as it was a place where he became the student body president and graduated as valedictorian.

Tanenbaum was appointed to the 1st District Court of Appeal in October 2019 and his track record since then impressed DeSantis enough to choose him from a crowded field of applicants.

Courtesy: 1st District Court of Appeal.

What they're saying:

"He’s had a really distinguished legal career, and he’s done a variety of things, not just as a judge but also working in the different branches of government and I think he’s done very well as a judge," said DeSantis. "He’s written a lot of very important opinions, clearly has a very coherent view of the law."

READ: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last State of the State: Full speech video

DeSantis pointed to Tanenbaum’s knowledge of the executive branch as a key factor for his appointment, saying that Tanenbaum understands the executive branch better than he does.

"You gotta be smart, you gotta understand how to interpret the law and the constitution, but you also need to have the courage to be able to apply that in circumstances where it might not be easy," DeSantis said.

Tanenbaum says he interprets the constitution with its original intent, to follow the mold of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. But he also emphasized that if his predecessors have missed the mark, it is the current court's duty to say so.

"What the judges say about the law is not the law. It is merely evidence of the law," Tanenbaum said. "We as judges do not declare the law for the state. We seek to find the objectively true meaning of the law that’s been handed to us by the legislature or the people in the constitution."

Big picture view:

Appointing judges to the high court is not new for DeSantis as he has now seated six of the seven justices on Florida’s high court in his time as governor.

"He's remade the courts," said former House Speaker Paul Renner, who has known Tanenbaum for over a decade. "The importance of that cannot be overstated on issue after issue."

And because justices serve at least six years and only then are they subject to voter review, Tanenbaum will serve at least until 2032, when the governor will have been out of office for five years. 

"My vision for the court is the same as the governor’s. Something also echoed by Chief Justice Muniz when he was first appointed," said Tanenbaum. "This supreme court can and should be a national leader in both original jurisprudence and judicial administration. I look forward to joining my soon-to-be colleagues in this continued pursuit of excellence."

The backstory:

Tanenbaum’s work history includes a stint in commercial litigation before serving as a public defender at the state and federal level.

Before that, Tanenbaum went to the University of Florida and graduated as a co-valedictorian. He then went on to study law at Georgetown.