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Too Bad About That Whole "Separation of Powers" Thing.

Listen, "separation of powers" was an interesting experiment, maybe it did kind of work briefly(?), but really it's time we just gave it up and moved on:

With Florida's legislative leaders still chafing from recent defeats before the Florida Supreme Court, Republican lawmakers signaled Wednesday that they want to strip some of the court's powers.

Their target: The court's authority to write rules governing practices and procedures across the statewide judicial system.

Republican members of the House Civil Justice Subcommittee accused the Supreme Court of routinely overstepping its authority in recent years by issuing rules that amount to substantive policy changes rather than merely addressing issues of procedure.

Among the rules they cited: One that established a maximum time to go to trial ? 175 days from a felony arrest ? after which a case must be dismissed as a violation of a defendant's right to a speedy trial; and another that required juvenile defendants be given a chance to confer with a lawyer before they can waive their rights to counsel and enter a plea to a crime.

"We've got a Supreme Court that's doing an end run around the Legislature," said Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton.

Yeah -- indefinite detention is way better, and why does a kid need a lawyer before the police beat a confession out of him he confesses to a crime?

Procedural safeguards are so last century!

In other news, this evening Spencer Aronfeld will explain to FIU law students why they shouldn't cry the second they graduate.

Good luck Spence, you've got your work cut out for you.

Full post as published by South Florida Lawyers on January 27, 2011 (boomark / email).