The Florida Supreme Court issued a final “no more” to Armando Arce on Thursday, officially barring the Crestview man from filing any future documents related to his ongoing domestic relations cases unless he hires a licensed attorney.
In an April 23, 2026, ruling, the state’s highest court categorized Arce’s constant stream of legal filings as a “frivolous” abuse of the judicial system. The decision follows a decade-long history of Arce attempting to use the courts to sideline Judge Jennie Kinsey, the presiding judge in his Okaloosa County cases.
Arce’s latest legal maneuver involved a petition for a “writ of mandamus” against Chief Judge Timothy D. Osterhaus. He wasn’t asking for a standard recusal this time; instead, he demanded that Judge Kinsey be stripped of all “administrative supervision” over cases in the First Judicial Circuit.
His reasoning rested on a 2003 judicial qualification case involving Judge Kinsey’s mother—a connection the court found irrelevant to Arce’s current litigation.
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The justices noted that Arce is no stranger to being restricted by the courts. The First District Court of Appeal had already banned him from filing any self-represented paperwork in late 2025. Despite those warnings, Arce filed 15 separate petitions with the Supreme Court since 2024 alone. Every single one was denied, dismissed, or transferred.
In the court’s opinion, the justices defined “frivolous” as filings that lack any legal basis or merit, or are simply “trifling, trivial, and silly.” They concluded that Arce’s constant petitions were essentially a shell game designed to bypass previous court orders he didn’t like.
“If no action is taken, Arce will continue to burden this Court’s resources,” the justices wrote in the per curiam opinion. They emphasized that while everyone has a right to the courts, those rights must be balanced against the need for the court to conduct “timely reviews of legitimate filings” from other citizens.
The Clerk of the Florida Supreme Court has been instructed to reject any future requests from Arce regarding his two specific domestic relations cases unless they are signed by a member of the Florida Bar in good standing. The court also made it clear that this decision is final, stating it will not consider any motions for rehearing or clarification.
Chief Justice Muñiz and Justices Labarga, Couriel, Grosshans, Francis, Sasso, and Tanenbaum all concurred in the decision.
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