Congressional Republicans have blocked an effort to name the federal courthouse in Tallahassee after the late judge Joseph Hatchett.
Six months ago, all 29 members of the Florida Congressional delegation lined up in support of a measure by Congressman Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, to honor the trailblazing jurist by designating the courthouse along Adams Street as the “Joseph Woodrow Hatchett U.S. Courthouse Federal Building.”
But Wednesday, when the measure came up on the House floor as a bipartisan effort sponsored by Republican U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, 10 Florida House members including Republican Neal Dunn of Panama City deserted the effort and turned their thumbs down.
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Lawson said he was extremely disappointed by House Republicans’ last minute obstruction, especially after the Rubio measure passed unanimously in the Senate.
“To witness, on the House floor, Republican vote changes (against) the bill during the final seconds of roll call was abhorrent,” Lawson said. Rubio was not immediately available for comment Thursday.
Axios reported that Georgia Republican Congressman Andrew Clyde rallied opposition to the Hatchett designation because of a 1999 opinion Hatchett authored that prohibited prayer at public school graduations.
“I let (that) be known,” Clyde said, according to Axios.
Lawson lashed out Clyde for working against the bill: “Clyde is also one of the three members who opposed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act,” which now makes lynching a federal hate crime.
The vote split Tallahassee, with Dunn representing the city’s northeast voting with the GOP against Lawson, who was the House sponsor of the naming. Dunn did not respond to a request for comment.
Without GOP support, the bill fell 45 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to designate the building in Hatchett’s honor.
All but one of the 220 House Democrats who voted on the bill supported it. Just 19 of 205 Republicans, including six Floridians, voted yes.
Led by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a half dozen Florida Republicans voted to designate the courthouse three blocks north of the state Capitol in honor of Hatchett, a Daytona Beach native.
Hatchett died last April. He was 88.
In 1976, he became the first Black since reconstruction to win a contested statewide race in Florida, defending his seat on the Florida Supreme Court – where he had been the first Black man to sit as a judge.
Three years later, President Jimmy Carter named him as the first African American to serve on a federal appeals court in the South. Hatchett retired from the bench in 1999 and returned to private practice in Tallahassee.
“Judge Hatchett was a true social justice pioneer and public servant … (he) was dedicated to his home state of Florida, where he served in many positions in the military and the federal and local justice systems. It would’ve been an honor to recognize such a leader,” Lawson said.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him Twitter: @CallTallahassee
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