Lawson, appellate judges qualify

Preparing for merit-retention elections, Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson and 13 appeals-court judges qualified Monday for the November ballot.

The election will be Lawson’s first merit-retention vote as a Supreme Court justice, though he previously was on the ballot while serving as a judge on the 5th District Court of Appeal.

The qualifying period for this year’s judicial elections opened at noon Monday and will end at noon Friday.

Appellate judges who qualified Monday were Brad Thomas of the 1st District Court of Appeal; Anthony Black, Darryl Casanueva, Edward LaRose and Susan Rothstein-Youakim of the 2nd District Court of Appeal; Kevin Emas, Ivan Fernandez, Norma Shepard Lindsey and Robert Luck of the 3rd District Court of Appeal; Burton Conner, Jeffrey Kuntz and Carole Taylor of the 4th District Court of Appeal; and Eric Eisnaugle of the 5th District Court of Appeal.