Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles Canady has an undeclared conflict of interest amid the high court’s review of a strict abortion ban passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year.

In April, within months of the ban after the 15th week of pregnancy becoming law, the Legislature and DeSantis enacted an even tougher ban co-sponsored by Canady’s wife, freshman State Rep. Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland. This six-week ban would all but eliminate legal abortion in Florida.

But the fate of the new law pushed by Rep. Canady depends on how the Supreme Court rules in Planned Parenthood of Southwest & Central Florida’s lawsuit against the state.

And despite the conflict of interest with his legislator wife, Justice Canady has not disqualified himself from participating in the case by filing a recusal.

CANADY EXERCISES HIS JUDGMENT

In February 2022, as Jennifer Canady was campaigning for election to the state house, Florida Bulldog reported about how Justice Canady’s official decisions might soon be influenced by his personal interests: If she wins, the court that her husband leads may someday pass judgment on a law she sponsored. So would Canady recuse himself, or participate in the case anyway?


Rep. Jennifer Canady retweeted this message about her six-week abortion ban bill on April 13

He should stand down to avoid raising conflict-of-interest concerns, but he doesn’t have to, said Peter Joy, a judicial ethics professor from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. “It would be up to Canady to exercise his own judgment,” Joy told a reporter.