Carlos G. Muñiz Eric W.

Maclure
Chief Justice Interim State Courts Administrator

Office of the State Courts Administrator

Phone: (850) 922-5081 Fax: (850) 488-0156
e-mail: osca@flcourts.gov

October 17, 2023

The Honorable Susan S. Lopez

State Attorney
Thirteenth Judicial Circuit
419 North Pierce Street
Tampa, Florida 33602

Dear State Attorney Lopez:

Thank you for sharing your October 13, 2023, letter to Attorney General
Ashley Moody requesting an opinion from that Office on application of Florida’s
open meetings laws to the Judicial Circuit Assessment Committee. Attached
please find the Committee’s announcement regarding its voluntary and
unanimous decision to conduct its November 3 and 17, 2023, meetings
publicly by videoconference.

The Committee has chosen to conduct these meetings publicly even

though the judicial branch and its appointed committees are not required to do
so under the open meetings provisions of the Florida Constitution and the
Florida Statutes. See Florida Constitution, Article I, Section 24, subsection (b)
(“All meetings of any collegial public body of the executive branch of state
government or of any collegial public body of a county, municipality, school
district, or special district, at which official acts are to be taken or at which
public business of such body is to be transacted or discussed, shall be open
and noticed to the public and meetings of the legislature shall be open and
noticed ….”); section 286.011(1), Florida Statutes (2023) (“All meetings of any
board or commission of any state agency or authority or of any agency or
authority of any county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision … at
which official acts are to be taken are declared to be public meetings open to
the public at all times ….”). The judicial branch is a separate and co-equal
branch of Florida’s government and not a “state agency or authority” or an
“agency or authority of any county, municipal corporation, or political
subdivision.” Thus, the Judicial Circuit Assessment Committee, as a
committee appointed by the Supreme Court of Florida under Florida Rule of
General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.241, is not a “board or
commission of any state agency or authority.” Further, under the separation of
powers doctrine, as codified in Article V, Sections 1 and 2 of the Florida
Constitution, “[t]he judicial power shall be vested in a supreme court,”

Supreme Court Building ● 500 South Duval Street ● Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1900 ● http://www.flcourts.gov
The Honorable Susan S. Lopez
October 17, 2023
Page 2

including the power to “adopt rules for … the administrative supervision of all
courts.”

The Government-in-the-Sunshine Manual recognizes this legal framework

and provides in part:

The open meetings provision found in Art. I, s. 24, Fla. Const.,

does not include meetings of the judiciary. In addition, separation
of powers principles make it unlikely that the Sunshine Law, a
legislative enactment, could apply to the courts established
pursuant to Art. V, Fla. Const. AGO 83-97. Thus, questions of
access to judicial proceedings usually arise under other
constitutional guarantees relating to open and public judicial
proceedings, Amend. VI, U.S. Const., and freedom of the press,
Amend. I, U.S. Const.

Manual (2023 Edition), p. 12.

Having considered this framework at the outset of its work in July, the
Committee nevertheless made the decision to conduct most of its meetings
publicly in light of the significant interest in the topic of consolidation of
judicial circuits. The Committee’s work process has been consistent with
judicial branch practices for the conduct of Supreme Court-created
committees, with some committees meeting publicly as a policy matter, while
others remain necessarily and legally closed. The Judicial Circuit Assessment
Committee has embraced openness throughout the process – conducting, to
date, five business meetings and two public hearings that were accessible to
interested persons by videoconference or in person; receiving almost 7,000
survey responses to its surveys of the general public and court system
professionals; and receiving hundreds of emails, letters, and resolutions sent
by judicial system stakeholders, public officials, local governments, and the
general public.

The Committee looks forward to continuing its commitment to providing

transparency and is grateful for the engagement of the state attorneys in its
research and analysis. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any
assistance.

Sincerely,

Eric W. Maclure
The Honorable Susan S. Lopez
October 17, 2023
Page 3

Attachment

cc: The Honorable Ashley Moody, Florida Attorney General

The Honorable Carlos G. Muñiz, Chief Justice, Florida Supreme Court
The Honorable Jonathan D. Gerber, Chair, Judicial Circuit Assessment
Committee
The Honorable Christopher C. Sabella, Chief Judge, Thirteenth Judicial
Circuit
The Honorable Julianne M. Holt, Public Defender, Thirteenth Judicial
Circuit
Mr. Gary S. Weisman, Chief of Staff, Office of the State Attorney,
Thirteenth Judicial Circuit
Ms. Erin Maloney, Communications Director, Office of the State Attorney,
Thirteenth Judicial Circuit
 JUDICIAL CIRCUIT ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE’S REMAINING MEETINGS
WILL BE PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE

The Judicial Circuit Assessment Committee currently has three scheduled meetings remaining in its
workplan:

• Friday, November 3, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (ET) – to analyze the various information before the
Committee against the criteria prescribed in court rules;
• Friday, November 17, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (ET) – to continue the analysis if it is not concluded
at the prior meeting and to review a draft report; and
• Friday, November 29, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. (ET) – to present and approve its final report.

The Committee will submit its report to the Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court by Friday, December
1, as provided in Supreme Court Administrative Order No. AOSC23-35.

The Committee has unanimously decided to conduct all of its remaining meetings publicly by Zoom, due
to the overwhelming interest in the Committee’s work from throughout the State of Florida.1 The
Committee received nearly 7,000 responses to its surveys of judicial system stakeholders and the general
public. The Committee also has received hundreds of emails, letters, and resolutions sent by judicial system
stakeholders, public officials, local governments, and the general public. The Committee also conducted
two public hearings in Orlando and Tampa, during which persons were given the opportunity to speak
directly to the Committee, in-person and by videoconference, to share their views. These speakers included
several dozen public officials, judicial system stakeholders, and the general public. The Committee also
has compiled various data with the assistance of the Office of the State Courts Administrator and justice
system stakeholders. The various information gathered by the Committee is available on its webpage.

The Committee will be considering and applying the survey responses, correspondence, public testimony,
and data to the six criteria set forth in Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.241
for determining whether a need exists to decrease judicial circuits. Those six criteria include: (1)
effectiveness; (2) efficiency; (3) access to courts; (4) professionalism; (5) public trust and confidence; and
(6) such other factors as are regularly considered when determining the need for additional judges under
Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.240, which are based primarily upon circuit
court and county court caseload statistics.

Click here to register for the November 3, 2023, meeting of the Committee. The deadline to submit
correspondence to the Committee by email (JCACinfo@flcourts.org) will be Tuesday, October 24.

* * *

1
The Committee has chosen to conduct its remaining meetings publicly by Zoom even though the judicial branch
and its appointed committees are not required to do so under the open meetings provisions of the Florida Constitution
and the Florida Statutes. See Florida Constitution, Article I, Section 24, subsection (b), and section 286.011(1), Florida
Statutes (2023).