Three years ago today, the great Florida civil rights lawyer and judge Leander J. Shaw, Jr., lay in state in the rotunda of the Florida Supreme Court. He became the Court's first African-American Chief Justice in 1990. It was the crest of a 20-year tenure that began when he joined the state's highest tribunal in … Continue reading Remembering Justice Leander Shaw
What separates the living from the dead? Come to Cassadaga, Florida, if you yearn for an answer. Because this is a place where some say the veil cloaking the afterlife is especially thin. There are dozens of psychics here who will give you answers. Seances are held at regular times. For a few dollars, spiritual … Continue reading Spirits of Cassadaga
December 15, 2018 There are those who contend Florida was the first cowboy state. After all, its cattle-driving business was well underway by the 1830s. Some historians also say barbecue was first given to Europeans by the Timucua tribes that lived in the state for eons. What else would a cowboy eat? But the Stetson? … Continue reading Florida’s Cowboy Mansion
Justices of the Florida Supreme Court live their lives in the glare of publicity. Some would call it a fish bowl. Twenty-one years ago today, a West Palm Beach judge named Barbara J. Pariente was suddenly cast inside Tallahassee's intrusive world of public scrutiny. It happened on December 10, 1997, when Governor Lawton Chiles named her … Continue reading On the Retirement of Justice Barbara Pariente
It now is a generation in the past. Exactly twenty years ago today. On December 8, 1998, a lower appeals court judge and former Central Florida assistant attorney general named Peggy A. Quince was elevated to the Florida Supreme Court by Governor Lawton Chiles. She was the first African-American woman ever appointed. Her life had … Continue reading On the Retirement of Justice Peggy Quince
The tragic end of things we have loved is always hard. So it is with Whitfield Memorial Baptist Church in Pensacola. I was baptized and grew up there. And then I watched on Facebook video as the church building was demolished only weeks ago on August 14, 2018. Today, someone from my early and golden … Continue reading The Tragic End of Things We Have Loved
Twenty years ago today, a West Virginia native with a distinguished college football career in Florida was named to the state's highest court. Few of the wizened Tallahassee capital news reporters who attended the press conference will ever forget what happened next. After Gov. Lawton Chiles introduced Miami attorney R. Fred Lewis as his appointee, … Continue reading On the Retirement of Justice R. Fred Lewis
One of the hallmarks of work at the Florida Supreme Court is how much the judges and staff come to view each other as family. Today, our extended is remembering one of our beloved courthouse kindred, Betsy Hill. Betsy worked for many years in our Court Clerk's Office. She was loved for her gentle kindness, … Continue reading The Florida Supreme Court Family
Painting by Pensacola artist Pat Page made from the photos shown here. Around 1970, my sister Debbie Waters Box was a young singer just starting a career as a music teacher when the local PBS station in Pensacola asked her to make some recordings for use in folk music studies. She took me along to … Continue reading Ode to Billy Joe
The Florida Supreme Court's decision earlier this year to place live video and audio of all its oral arguments on Facebook Live continues to be studied and praised. Florida's Public Radio network through its Miami affiliate WLRN recently took a look at how this new form of governmental transparency is working, even as courts around … Continue reading Open Courts & Justice Gerald Kogan
Robert Craig Waters 