Miami judge on list to replace Ginsburg on Court,
President Donald Trump is considering Barbara Lagoa, a Miami-born federal appellate court judge, for a spot on the Supreme Court following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday, according to multiple news reports.
Lagoa, a 52-year-old Cuban American raised in Hialeah, currently serves on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
She is on a list of possible Supreme Court replacements that Trump published earlier this month. Lagoa is one of two women on Trump’s short list along with Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, according to news reports.
As he departed the White House on Saturday for a political rally in North Carolina, Trump said his pick would “most likely” be a woman. While he said he does not personally known Lagoa, Trump said he knew she was “highly respected” in Miami.
“She’s an extraordinary person,” Trump said. “I’ve heard incredible things about her. I don’t know her. She’s Hispanic and highly respected.”
Ginsburg’s death has set the stage for a bitter nomination dispute, as Trump pushes for a swift appointment and Democrats are adamant that the seat remain open until after the Nov. 3 presidential election, which is 45 days away from Saturday.
Democrats cite how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, blocked President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, from receiving a Senate confirmation hearing. At the time, McConnell and his GOP allies said the vacant seat, stemming from the February 2016 death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, shouldn’t be filled due to the presidential election being nine months away.
This time around, McConnell has said circumstances are different because the White House and the Senate are occupied by the same political party. In 2016, Obama, a Democrat, occupied the White House while the GOP controlled the Senate.
In 2019, Lagoa became the first Hispanic woman on the Florida Supreme Court when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her to the high court in his first selection as governor. She was also the first Cuban-American woman to serve on Miami’s appeals court, the 3rd District Court of Appeal, where she later became its first Hispanic female chief judge, according to a biography published by the Florida Supreme Court.
Lagoa left the Florida Supreme Court in December after Trump nominated her for the appeals court position. She graduated from Florida International University in 1989 and Columbia University School of Law in
1992, where she served as an associate editor of the Columbia Law Review. She attended Immaculate Conception School in Hialeah and Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Miami Gardens, according to the Archdiocese of Miami.
Lagoa, who speaks fluent Spanish, is the daughter of exiled Cubans who fled the country more than 50 years ago when Fidel Castro came into power.
In 2000, as a private attorney, Lagoa was part of the legal team that defended the Miami-based relatives of Elián González, the Cuban boy caught in a high-profile custody dispute between his father in Cuba and his relatives in Miami. She joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2003 and in 2006, then-Gov. Jeb
Bush appointed her to the 3rd District Court of Appeal.
DeSantis announced Lagoa’s appointment at the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, a symbol for Cuban immigrants arriving in South Florida.
In her speech accepting the Florida Supreme Court appointment in January, Lagoa signaled that she would interpret the law as it is written and not engage in judicial activism.
“It is the role of judges to apply, not to alter, the work of the people’s representatives,” she said.
She has three children with husband Paul Huck Jr., an attorney and the son of senior Miami federal judge Paul Huck Sr.
McClatchy DC reporter Francesca Chambers contributed to this report