The Florida Supreme Court will have its first Cuban-American chief justice when Jorge Labarga moves into the post this summer. His fellow justices elected Labarga, who has served on the court for five years, on Wednesday. He'll head the state courts system amid funding questions and episodes of tension with the Legislature.
Labarga came to the United States at age eleven, just after the Cuban missile crisis in 1963. He says living under Castro's regime is part of why he's a strong supporter of the judiciary."The first thing Fidel did, the first thing Hitler did, the first thing Stalin did – they got rid of the judiciary and put in their own so-called judiciary", Labarga recalled. "And that should tell us something."
Labarga got his start in the law as a public defender and a prosecutor, and then went on to found a private firm. He's been a judge for 18 years. Then-Governor Charlie Crist appointed Labarga to the Supreme Court in 2009.
