1. Whenever a vacancy occurs in a judicial office to which election for retention applies, the governor shall fill the vacancy by appointing for a term ending on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January of the year following the next general election occurring at least one year after the date of appointment, one of not fewer than three persons nor more than six persons nominated by the appropriate judicial nominating commission.
2. The governor shall fill each vacancy on a circuit court or on a county court, wherein the judges are elected by a majority vote of the electors, by appointing for a term ending on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January of the year following the next primary and general election occurring at least one year after the date of appointment, one of not fewer than three persons nor more than six persons nominated by the appropriate judicial nominating commission. An election shall be held to fill that judicial office for the term of the office beginning at the end of the appointed term.
3. The nominations shall be made within thirty days from the occurrence of a vacancy unless the period is extended by the governor for a time not to exceed thirty days. The governor shall make the appointment within sixty days after the nominations have been certified to the governor.
4. There shall be a separate judicial nominating commission as provided by general law for the supreme court, each district court of appeal, and each judicial circuit for all trial courts within the circuit. Uniform rules of procedure shall be established by the judicial nominating commissions at each level of the court system. Such rules, or any part thereof, may be repealed by general law enacted by a majority vote of the membership of each house of the legislature, or by the supreme court, five justices concurring. Every nominating commission shall consist of nine members each of whom shall serve a two-year term. Three of the members shall be appointed by the supreme court, three shall be appointed by the Governor and the remaining three shall be appointed by the members of the commission. Every member must be a resident of the territorial jurisdiction of the commission to which the member is appointed and at least six members of each commission must be members in good standing of the Florida Bar. The supreme court shall adopt uniform rules of procedure for the commissions at each level of the court system. Except for deliberations of the judicial nominating commissions, the proceedings of the commissions and their records shall be open to the public.

Note to Commissioners: (not a part of the proposal). The original version of the merit selection process enabled the governor to appoint judges from nominees selected by commissions that were neutral and insulated from the political process. But over the years, the appointment process has morphed into one in which the Governor appoints a judge nominated by a group of people appointed entirely by the Governor. In its present form, section 43.291 Florida Statutes, provides that the Governor shall appoint all nine members of each commission. The Governor makes five appointments outright and four others from a list submitted by the Florida Bar. This is not a system that inspires confidence in the selection process. Those who would criticize it might say that it merely creates the appearance of merit selection.

The judiciary is the branch of government most interested in (and most affected by) judicial appointments yet, under the current system, it plays no role in the nomination of those who will serve as judges. The proposal made here would enable the supreme court, arguably the entity best able to select those who would nominate judges, to have at least some input into the process