{"id":66859,"date":"2025-12-01T19:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T19:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/66859\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T19:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T19:33:09","slug":"who-is-charles-canady-the-new-director-of-the-hamilton-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/66859\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Charles Canady, the new director of the Hamilton School?"},"content":{"rendered":"

UF Interim President Donald Landry announced<\/a> Nov. 17 Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles T. Canady will serve as the next director of the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canady is a prominent Florida justice and former politician best known for his conservative judicial philosophy and influence on constitutional interpretation. He\u2019ll earn a base salary of $500,000 in his new role, almost double what he made on the court.<\/p>\n

The Hamilton School, founded in 2022, is the newest school at UF. Its mission is to teach students \u201chow to think, not what to think,\u201d according to its website.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canady announced his retirement from the court to take on his new role at UF in a press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI will always deeply value my years on the court,\u201d he wrote, \u201cBut the time has come to move on to another position of public service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canady wrote he was \u201ceager to begin [his] work\u201d at UF\u2019s Hamilton School.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canady will follow Robert Ingram, a longtime humanities professor who taught for two decades at the University of Ohio. Ingram served as associate director of the Hamilton School from 2022 until starting his role as interim director this August<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His appointment as interim director was explicitly<\/a> for a one-year term, and there was no mention of Ingram\u2019s formal statement of resignation.<\/p>\n

Canady is a former attorney and judge, and he first became a justice of the Supreme Court of Florida in 2008. Appointed by former Gov. Charlie Crist, he went on to hold the position of Chief Justice three times, from 2010 to 2012, in 2018 and again in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout his career as Chief Justice, Canady adhered to originalism, the idea that a legal text\u2019s meaning is fixed at the time of its creation, and consistently ruled in favor of state executive and legislative power.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, Canady authored federal legislation, which introduced the term \u201cpartial-birth abortion,\u201d a late-term procedure that was banned in 2003 in conditions other than being life-threatening to the mother. He argued the term made the practice more understandable to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the Florida Supreme Court, Canady\u2019s opinions often reflected his view that courts should avoid stepping into the responsibilities of lawmakers. He built a record centered on the separation of powers and constitutional clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Enjoy what you’re reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n

In 2019, Canady rejected a nearly decade-long lawsuit challenging whether the state had properly carried out the 1989 constitutional amendment, which called for ensuring a \u201chigh quality\u201d education in public schools. The majority, including Canady, argued that there was no definition for a \u201cmanageable standard\u201d by which courts could rewrite education funding or policy. Instead, they said such decisions belong with lawmakers, upholding the separation of powers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canady has received public support from Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> and Sen. Jay Collins<\/a>. He also received the support of Sen. Jeb Bush<\/a>, whom he previously worked with.<\/p>\n

Jeffery Collins, a UF professor and interim associate director of the Hamilton School, also expressed optimism about the selection, praising Canady\u2019s expertise in legal and constitutional questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice Canady has the profile, temperament and experience to build on and advance Hamilton into its next phase,\u201d he wrote in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some students at the Hamilton School share the same confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fabian Sanchez, a 20-year-old UF economics and philosophy sophomore, said he thought Canady was a good choice for the role because of his expertise as a justice. Sanchez is pursuing a minor in politics, philosophy, economics and law, one of two minors the Hamilton School offers.<\/p>\n

Sanchez said he thinks Canady\u2019s selection will boost the school\u2019s popularity across UF\u2019s campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople around UF \u2026 they\u2019re not aware there\u2019s a new major,\u201d Sanchez said, \u201cSo I would hope that he would make [the school] more involved in UF.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hamilton School currently offers two majors and two minors. Last summer, 1,340<\/a> students were enrolled in the school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the rejection<\/a> of candidate Santa J. Ono as UF President earlier this year, three Republican lawmakers called<\/a> on UF to embrace a more public process for presidential searches moving forward. They expressed concern over a 2022 state law allowing the shielding of the presidential selection process, saying it is \u201cbeing abused by creating an unfair system.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was no known transparent search for the Hamilton School\u2019s director position.<\/p>\n

Contact Swasthi Maharaj at smaharaj@alligator.org<\/a>. Follow her on X @s_maharaj1611. <\/p>\n

\n The Independent Florida Alligator has been independent of the university since 1971, your donation today could help #SaveStudentNewsrooms. Please consider giving today.\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Swasthi Maharaj<\/p>\n

Swasthi is the Fall 2025 university administration reporter. She’s previously worked as general assignment reporter with The Alligator, and you can also find her work in Rowdy Magazine or The Florida Finibus. When she’s not staring at her laptop screen or a textbook, she’s probably taking a long walk or at a yoga class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UF Interim President Donald Landry announced Nov. 17 Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles T. Canady will serve as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-66859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}