Annie Mayne

The Florida Supreme Court disciplined 18 attorneys between April 30 and June 26. Five were disbarred, four saw their licenses revoked, eight were suspended and one faced public reprimand.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is accused of moving too slowly, missing the cutoff to make one appointment, as dozens of other vacancies loom for state court judges.

One week after holding the judge should face a fine in addition to an agreed-upon public reprimand, the Florida Supreme Court now says she should be suspended too. Ethics experts not involved in the case say the justices' change of heart is unusual.

"We're done with woke judges down in Florida," Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote in an X post. "Going for impeachments."

U.K.-based elections technology company Smartmatic says the government's decision to drop its prosecution against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, in part because the case was primarily foreign, warrants the dismissal of its case. But prosecutors said Wednesday "Adani bears no resemblance to this case."

"We came away from this case not just winning, but really with an improvement in the law in Florida because now there's clarity," said Weiss Serota Helfman Cole + Bierman partner Edward Guedes, who secured Thursday's victory for client Publix.

The appointment—made the day Gov. Ron DeSantis is due to file a response to a lawsuit alleging he illegally delayed the process to fill the empty seat on Florida's Third District Court of Appeal—will likely get the case against the governor dismissed as moot. Whether or not the high court weighs in on the governor's alleged unconstitutional delay, and opines on what it means for the dozens of other vacancies in Florida state courts, is still to be seen.

"This lawsuit was not brought to vindicate rights; it was brought to manipulate the judicial process to pursue benefits unavailable in litigation because the parties were not adverse," U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida Kathleen M. Williams held Monday.

A retired Florida state appeals court judge who accused Gov. Ron DeSantis of illegally delaying the process to fill his old seat says now that an appointment has been made, his lawsuit against the governor is moot. But the former judge still wants the Florida Supreme Court to weigh in on the pattern of delays he called "a slap in the face to the judiciary."

The case could be the difference between whether federal legislators set the tone for AI regulation, of if the courts will play a pivotal role in imposing standards.