Any one of thousands of qualified and capable legal minds would improve the Florida Supreme Court. But only 10 applied for the current vacancy — and all are men.

Taking the easy path, a nominating panel submitted six — the most the Constitution allows — to Gov. Ron DeSantis. All six, like DeSantis, belong to the conservative Federalist Society. Its co-chairman Leonard Leo has privately advised the governor on Florida Supreme Court appointments.

Whomever DeSantis picks will join five justices who owe their appointments to him and almost always vote as he likes. The seventh and senior justice, Jorge Labarga, born in Cuba and raised in Pahokee, will continue to write solitary dissents.

This one-sided court doesn’t reflect Gov. Reubin Askew’s goal when he established the wistfully named merit selection system in 1972 or what he, legislators and voters intended when they provided in 1976 that future appellate judges would be appointed, not elected.

A system failure

The intent was to keep partisan politics out of the courts where precedents are made and to give every able lawyer a fair chance to apply.

The fact that only 10 wanted to replace departing Justice Charles Canady in a state of 23 million shows a system failure. The perception is that only like-minded DeSantis partisans need apply — what Askew tried to prevent.