Retire Griffin

As mentioned in yesterday's post, Florida voters haven't voted a judge off the bench since given the power back in 1978.

If those lucky enough to find Judge Jacqueline R. Griffin on their ballot want to change history, they have a pretty good candidate.

Judge Griffin is a native of Chelsea, Massachusetts, and grew up a Navy brat. At least part of her childhood was spent in Cuba, where she apparently fell in love with the Spanish language. That was her major at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and it was the subject she taught at Lyman High School locally back in the early 1970s.

She's been on the 5th District Court of Appeals since 1989.

Yours truly has been peeved with her for a couple of years, since she voted against making court records available via the internet. Fortunately, the rest of the panel voted the other way.

Still, I think it may be a time for a change here, perhaps allowing a new judge with greater appreciation for freedom of information and transparency to take a seat on the bench that Griffin has been warming for more than two decades . . .