The Gavel is Passed to Peggy Quince
Justice Peggy Quince, appointed to the Florida Supreme Court jointly by the late Governor Lawton Chiles and Governor Jeb Bush in 1998, became Chief Justice Peggy Quince on Friday, June 27, 2008. She serves as Florida's first African-American woman on the Supreme Court. Dignitaries, friends, and members of the judicial community were present to witness the Passing of the Gavel ceremony (the Florida chief justice serves a two-year term) in the Florida Supreme Court courtroom. Out-going Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis passed the ceremonial gavel to Chief Peggy Quince.
Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis welcomed the overflowing audience in the courtroom and introduced several key speakers before asking Justice Quince to step forward to be sworn in by Justice Barbara J. Pariente.
 Prior to swearing in the new Chief Justice, Justice Pariente said that Justice Quince was moments away from being "captain of the Florida judicial ship." She continued by saying, "The people of Florida will look to you to protect their legal rights. . . . There is no one better suited to do that and to lead the judicial branch over the next two years." Justice Pariente then swore in Justice Peggy Quince (her hand on a bible secured from a nearby well-wisher) as the 53rd Chief Justice of Florida with the new Chief Justice's husband, Fred Buckine, by her side.
Chief Justice Quince graduated from Howard University in 1970 and received her law degree from the Catholic University of America in 1975. After more than thirteen years of service as a prosecutor in the criminal division of the Attorney General's Office (and just prior to being appointed to the Supreme Court), she was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeal in 1993, the first African-American woman named to any of Florida's five lower appeals courts.
Go to the Florida Supreme Court web site to read Chief Justice Quince's entire biography. |
