Napoleonic Florida Gov Ron DeSantis owned the libs on Tuesday by filling a newly created state appeals court seat with an outgoing Hillsborough County circuit judge who lost reelection in August after a controversial ruling earlier this year in which he denied a teenager an abortion without the consent of her parents because she wasn’t mature enough, the Miami Herald reports.
Judge Jared Smith was to turn in his badge and gavel on January 1st following his defeat in the August 23rd election to Tampa attorney Nancy Jacobs in a race heavily focused on Smith calling a pregnant 17 year-old too dumb and immature to be permitted to have an abortion without the consent of her parents, a ruling which was later overturned and found to be an abuse of judicial discretion by an appeals court. Then there was when Smith’s wife, campaigning at a MAGAchurch, told congregants that Jacobs, a Jew, “needs Jesus.” Because, definitely not in spite of his evil ways, DeSantis decided that Smith has the right stuff for the newly created Florida 6th District Court of Appeals, which we would imagine comes with a bigger paycheck and fancier judge costume.