TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida-born Barbara Lagoa is one of four or five women President Donald Trump is considering for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lagoa is the first Cuban-American woman to serve on the Florida Supreme Court and she has served as a judge at the appellate level since 2006.
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Flags were at half staff Monday at the Florida Supreme Court where one of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s possible successors once served.
In 2006, then-Governor Jeb Bush tapped Barbara Lagoa to serve on the Third District Court of Appeal.
Raquel Rodriguez was Bush’s top lawyer at the time.
“The fact that her parents fled communism and worked for freedom in the United States is something that became a part of her. An indelible part of her character and her belief in Democracy and the rule of law,” said Rodriguez.
Lagoa spent a dozen years on the appeals court before being tapped by Gov. Ron Desantis for the state’s highest court in January 2019.
“It is for the legislature and not the courts to make the law,” said Lagoa at the announcement of her appointment.
Nine months later, President Trump nominated Lagoa for an opening on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on an 80 to 15 vote.
“She is 1,000 percent up to the task. She is one of those rare individuals that is a talent that you only see on occasion. And her work ethic is beyond anybody’s work ethic,” said Rodriguez.
Based on our research, if nominated, Barbara Lagoa would be the only Florida-born person ever nominated for the nation’s highest court.
Federal Judge G. Harold Carswell of Tallahassee was nominated by Richard Nixon for the high court, but Carswell was born in Georgia, not Florida.
He was not confirmed by the Senate.
President Trump has said he will make his decision on Friday or Saturday, but not before the funeral of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.