Palm Beach Country's Own Goes to the Florida Supreme Court

TALLAHASSEE - Former Palm Beach County Prosecutor and Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga will be sworn in as Florida's 84th Supreme Court justice this afternoon in Tallahassee. What an achievement. Wow!

Labarga, 56, is a native of Havana, Cuba, who grew up in Pahokee and West Palm Beach. Attorney Shamin appeared before Judge Labarga once  when he was a circuit criminal Judge. 

He is the second justice of Cuban descent to serve on the state's highest court.

Labarga, the third of four appointments by Gov. Charlie Crist to the court since August, replaced Justice Harry Anstead, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. Unlike the Supreme Court of the United States, Florida has a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court Judges. 

Crist originally appointed Labarga, who is registered as a no-party-affiliation voter, to a vacant seat on the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach but Judge Labarga did not hear any cases.

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