Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently appointed Judge Adam Tanenbaum to the state supreme court. This will likely be DeSantis's final appointment to a Court he has completely reshaped. This seat faced some stiff competition. It was reported in Bloomberg that the Governor was looking for a "bloodthirsty" originalist. I think he got one.
In a speech, Tanenbaum said "I subscribe to the fixation thesis and the constraint principle." I would wager that most law professors have no clue what those things are. When you put a bloodthirsty originalist on the bench, litigants better be ready.
Yesterday, Tanenbaum had his first oral argument. The case was not particularly controversial. It turned on the meaning of the word "enterprise" in the state RICO statute. Aruging on behalf of Florida was Jason Muehlhoff, the deputy Solicitor General. Muehlhoff is no squish. He clerked for Judge VanDyke and worked at Gibson Dunn in Dallas. So here you have a very conservative judge asking questions of a very conservative lawyer.
