TALLAHASSEE _ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was in his element when he gave the opening speech last month at the national convention of the Federalist Society, the organization of conservative and libertarian lawyers.
Citing Federalist papers and 162-year-old U.S. Supreme Court cases, the Harvard-trained attorney made an articulate case against the branch of government he said felt "superior" to the others.
"I think judicial power is too robust right now," DeSantis said. "And I think the checks upon it are just simply inadequate."
Less than a year after taking office, DeSantis is faced with making his fourth and fifth picks for the state Supreme Court, melding Florida's highest court to his legal philosophy.
And his views are indistinguishable from the Federalist Society, whose members have been instrumental in making those picks. Leonard Leo, the society's executive director, vetted the three nominees DeSantis made earlier this year.
Two of those judges were later chosen by President Donald Trump for the federal bench _ meaning DeSantis gets two more Supreme Court picks, likely naming them early next year.
At the convention, Leo said he already knew who DeSantis will choose to replace them: "committed Floridian originalists," referring to the "originalist" judicial philosophy popularized by the organization's most revered member _ former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
The philosophy goes like this: When reading the law, judges should interpret it as it's written on the page. If the law is messy or unclear _ as it often is _ judges should not strain to come up with their own interpretations, or rely on what lawmakers might have intended.
That goes for the Constitution as well. The Constitution is not a document that can be interpreted to apply to 21st century problems, as many judges do.
