Gov. Ron DeSantis filled a controversial void Tuesday on the Florida Supreme Court by naming a black jurist to the seven-member panel, along with …
Gov. Ron DeSantis filled a controversial void Tuesday on the Florida Supreme Court by naming a black jurist to the seven-member panel, along with a Hispanic attorney who will replace justices recently named to a federal appeals court.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Renatha Francis, who was born in Jamaica, will be the first black to serve on the court since Justice Peggy Quince retired in January 2019. John Couriel, a lawyer with the Miami firm, Kobre & Kim, also is a first-generation Floridian whose father was born in Cuba.
“I think it’s a credit, for one, to South Florida. Every time we’re doing this, you have so many great candidates… I think that’s a testament to a lot of the great talent we have here,” DeSantis said in announcing the appointments at an event in downtown Miami.
Because three justices retired just as DeSantis took office and two of his replacements left quickly for other jobs, the governor now has named five appointees to the Supreme Court, four of them from South Florida. Justices Barbara Lagoa and Robert Luck were short-timers, nominated by President Donald Trump for the 11th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which they joined in December.
The 29-member Legislative Black Caucus had encouraged DeSantis to name Francis, the lone black nominee among the nine names recommended to the governor earlier this year by the Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission.
When Quince retired, it marked the first time in 36 years that the state’s Supreme Court had no black justice.
But the coronavirus pandemic has slowed DeSantis’s action on the court vacancies. Still, the delay also reduces the impact of a twist to Francis’s appointment.
