It was a simple, two-paragraph letter from Judge Robert Benton II to Gov. Rick Scott a little more than a year ago that marked a milestone in Benton’s life and in the course of one of the most important courts in Florida.

“God willing,” Benton wrote at the end, “on January 16, 2016, I will attain the age of seventy years and so become ineligible … to continue to serve as a judge, except upon temporary assignment.”