# Florida Judge retires early

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-judge-retires-early/1029328>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [April 17, 2026, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-judge-retires-early/1029328 "2026-04-17T04:27:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2026, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-judge-retires-early/1029328/1 "2026-04-17T04:27:11Z")

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Leon County Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey has submitted her resignation, which will probably allow the Governor to choose a replacement, rather than going to election which may result in some random popular choice.

Par for the course, and I wouldn’t mention it, except that (mundane thing I want to share), _My Grandfather_ !!!  
Circa 100 years ago, my Grandfather was in line to be Mayor of Lansing Michigan, but the incumbent “died early”, so instead of rotation the political machine got to pick the next mayor

Did it matter? Well, I’m still bitching about it around 100 years later …

(Put it here in Politics so that you could all pile on with your opinions about Dmpsey and DeSantis)

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**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-judge-retires-early/1029328/2 "2026-04-17T16:35:12Z")

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Here is an article with the story, including the impact on the election:

> **[Judge Dempsey resigns, likely short-circuiting judicial election](https://www.aol.com/news/judge-dempsey-tenders-resignation-likely-215612622.html?guccounter=1)**
>
> Leon Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey submitted her resignation letter to the Governor's Office effective later this year, a step that closed the door on her re-election campaign and could short-circuit the election for her seat.

> In 2023, Dempsey drew backlash for a major ruling in DeSantis’ favor that recognized what’s known as “[executive privilege](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/executive_privilege)” in Florida law. The ruling allowed DeSantis to avoid disclosing the identities of the “legal conservative heavyweights” he consults before selecting state Supreme Court justices.

So she seems like a DeSantis crony, who resigned so that Ron can appoint a new crony and won’t have to worry about a judge being elected that might actually enforce the law in a way that Republicans wouldn’t like. You have to love Florida.