Craig Waters was the public information officer and communications director for the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee from June 1, 1996, through February 28, 2022. He worked in the open government and First Amendment rights as a lawyer and governmental official. He was also the public spokesman for the Court during the 2000 presidential election controversy. He announced lawsuit rulings regarding Florida's vote in the election.
These cases include George W. Bush v. Albert Gore Jr. or Bush v. Gore. Waters' role in these events has been included in films, documentaries, and books about Florida's undecided 2000 general election, which forced the world to wait for more than a month to learn who would become the next President of the United States of America.
Career at the Florida Supreme Court
Waters began work at the Florida Supreme Court on March 2, 1987 as a law clerk (staff attorney). In the early 1990s, Waters helped create and expand the Florida Supreme Court's website at a time when the World-Wide Web was new and barely understood. Under the administration of Chief Justice Gerald Kogan, Waters led the Florida Supreme Court's efforts to begin webcasting video of all of its oral arguments when the technology to do so first became available.
Simultaneously, the Court began broadcasting via satellite and over the cable network the Florida Channel as part of the same program. Broadcasts continue to the present day. In the early 2000s, Waters made the Florida Supreme Court a pioneer in the use of emerging social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to communicate with the public. This work was influenced by Waters' prior career as a Florida journalist and by his experience as an openly gay man.
Starting in 2015, Waters began implementing Chief Justice Jorge Labarga's plans, approved by the entire Florida Supreme Court, to implement a statewide communications plan for the state courts. The plan relies heavily on the use of public information officers or PIOs at all 27 divisions of the Florida State Courts and calls for increasing use of social media and other new technology like smartphones. The plan is being implemented through an organization Waters founded a decade earlier, the Florida Court Public Information Officers, Inc., a federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed as a professional association. Waters retired after 35 years on February 28, 2022.
Portrayal in film
Waters is portrayed in the HBO Movie Recount by the actor Alex Staggs. The film, which had a broadcast premiere of May 25, 2008, and initially was produced by Sydney Pollack, chronicled the events in Florida during the presidential election lawsuits and appeals. For more than a month following the November 7, 2000, election, Florida's vote for the presidency remained undecided and too close to call, with the outcome hinging on legal decisions from the Florida Supreme Court that were announced by Waters on live worldwide television.
Staggs reenacts two scenes in which Waters announced the result of Florida Supreme Court decisions. The actual announcements had been unprecedented and were carried live by major television networks in the United States and around the globe. No American court previously had made live public announcements about legal decisions with such a major impact on world history. It was the first time many people had witnessed any appellate court doing its work from start to finish.
The first decision occurred on November 21, 2000, when Waters announced a court ruling extending the vote-counting deadline previously set by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. The second was on December 8, 2000, when Waters announced a decision requiring a statewide recount of ballots. The United States Supreme Court overruled this last decision on December 12, 2000, in an opinion that effectively handed the presidency to George W. Bush.
Waters later told a newspaper reporter: "My role as Court spokesman back then is something great to have in your past, once it proves to be a success. But I can tell you that the success was by no means guaranteed at the time. I came to work every day for more than a month in the fall of 2000 knowing there were a thousand ways to fail and millions of people watching."