Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Jorge Labarga
2009 - Present
2029
16
Jorge Labarga is a judge of the Florida Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 6, 2009. His current term ends on January 2, 2029.
Labarga ran for re-election for judge of the Florida Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 8, 2022.
Labarga was appointed to the court by Gov. Charlie Crist (R) on January 2, 2009, to replace retiring Justice Harry Lee Anstead.[1][2] He was retained by voters in 2010 and 2016. To read more about judicial selection in Florida, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[3] Labarga received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Labarga served two two-year terms as chief justice of the court from 2014 to 2018, the first time a justice had served consecutive terms as chief justice since the Civil War.[5] He was also the first Cuban American to hold the chief justice post.[6] Labarga served on the Circuit Court of Florida's 15th Judicial Circuit and spent one day on the state's Fourth District Court of Appeal before joining the state supreme court.[6][7]
Biography
Labarga was born in Havana, Cuba, on October 21, 1952.[8] He emigrated to the United States with his family in 1963.[9] He received a bachelor's degree and a law degree from the University of Florida in 1976 and 1979, respectively.[6]
Labarga became an assistant public defender in West Palm Beach in 1979. He joined the state attorney's office in West Palm Beach in 1982. From 1987 to 1996, Labarga practice personal injury law and criminal defense at two law firms.[6] Gov. Lawton Chiles (D) appointed Labarga to the Circuit Court of Florida's 15th Judicial Circuit in 1996.[6] Gov. Charlie Crist (R) appointed Labarga to the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal in 2008.[7] He served in the position for one day in 2009 before Crist appointed him to the state supreme court.[7]
Elections
2022
See also: Florida Supreme Court elections, 2022
Florida Supreme Court, Jorge Labarga's seat
Jorge Labarga was retained to the Florida Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 62.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
62.3
|
4,197,872 | ||
No |
37.7
|
2,535,034 | |||
Total Votes |
6,732,906 | ||||
|
|
Florida Supreme Court (2009-present)
Labarga was appointed to the court by Gov. Charlie Crist (R) on January 2, 2009, to replace retiring Justice Harry Lee Anstead.[1][2] He assumed office on January 6, 2009.
2016
- See also: Florida Supreme Court elections, 2016
Labarga was retained by voters on November 8, 2016, receiving 66.0% of the vote.[10]
| Florida Supreme Court 2016 general election results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
Jorge Labarga 
|
5,089,805 | 66.0% | ||
| Against retention | 2,619,100 | 34.0% | ||
2010
- See also: Florida judicial elections, 2010
Labarga was retained by voters on November 2, 2010, receiving 59.0% of the vote.[11]
| Florida Supreme Court 2010 general election results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
| Jorge Labarga
|
2,623,144 | 59.0% | ||
| Against retention | 1,825,270 | 41.0% | ||
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jorge Labarga did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[12]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[13]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Jorge
Labarga
Florida
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Labarga was a registered Republican prior to 2020. He was appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist (R) in 2009. At the time of his appointment, Florida was a Republican trifecta.
Other Indicators:
In a 2012 study of campaign contributions, Labarga received a campaign finance score of 0.83, indicating a conservative ideological leaning.
Bonica and Woodruff campaign finance scores (2012)
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Labarga received a campaign finance score of 0.5, indicating a conservative ideological leaning. This was less conservative than the average score of 0.51 that justices received in Florida.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[14]
Noteworthy cases
Noteworthy cases may be selected due to their impact on legal precedent, substantial media attention, or overlaps with another area of editorial interest at Ballotpedia. To suggest cases we should cover here, email us.
Fladell v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board (2000)
Following the 2000 presidential election in Florida between Al Gore (D) and George W. Bush (R), voters in Palm Beach County filed a lawsuit in Florida's 15th Circuit Court before Judge Labarga. Plaintiffs asked for a redo election, alleging that the layout of the ballot used in Palm Beach County did not comply with state law resulting in voter confusion and mistaken votes.[15] In a previous hearing, the case was split in two with the first hearing to decide whether a presidential redo election was legal. If so, the second hearing would have addressed the facts of the case relating to the ballot layout.[16] During the first hearing, Labarga decided "it is not legally possible to have a re-vote or new election for Presidential electors in Florida."[16]
Labarga based his decision on the U.S. Constitution, federal law, and a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case, Foster v. Love.
Labarga first cited Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which reads, in part, as follows: "The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States." He then cited Title 3, Chapter 1 of the U.S. Code, specifically sections 1, 2, and 5, which set a uniform federal Election Day on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The cited laws allow states to establish procedures to account for controversies over election results, but Labarga determined that Florida had no such procedures in its statutes.[16]
Finally, Labarga referenced Foster v. Love, a U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a Louisiana law that scheduled an election in October before Election Day. Under Louisiana's arrangement, if no candidate received a majority vote in the October election, the top two vote-getters would participate in a second election on Election Day in November. If a candidate in the October election received a majority vote, they would win the election outright. The Supreme Court ruled that this setup violated federal law because a candidate could win outright before Election Day effectively creating a federal election in Louisiana before the congressionally established Election Day.[17] Justice David Souter wrote that the federal law setting a single Election Day "mandates holding all elections for Congress and the Presidency on a single day throughout the Union." Labarga interpreted this to mean a presidential redo election occurring on some date after Election Day was not feasible in Florida.[16]
Click here to read his full decision.
State supreme court judicial selection in Florida
- See also: Judicial selection in Florida
The seven justices of the Florida Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. A judicial nominating commission consisting of nine members who are appointed by the governor to four-year terms screens potential judicial candidates.[18] The commission submits a list of three to six nominees to the governor, and the governor must then appoint a judge from the list.[19]
Newly appointed judges serve for at least one year, after which they appear in a yes-no retention election held during the next general election. If retained, judges serve six-year terms.[19] Under the Florida constitution, a judge must retire at age 75; however, a judge who reaches 75 after serving at least half of his or her term may complete that term.[20]
Qualifications
To serve on the court, a judge must be:
- a qualified elector;
- a state resident;
- admitted to practice law in the state for 10 years before assuming the bench; and
- under the age of 75.
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected by peer vote. He or she serves in that capacity for two years.[19]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs, the seat is filled as it normally would be if the vacancy occurred at the end of a judge's term. A judicial nominating commission recommends three to six qualified candidates to the governor, and the governor selects a successor from that list. The new appointee serves for at least one year before running in a yes-no retention election.[19]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Crist was a Republican at the time he appointed Labarga, but later switched his party affiliation to Democrat.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tampa Bay Times, "Right Pick for Court," Jan. 5, 2009
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Miami Herald "Jorge Labarga to serve rare 2nd term as chief justice of Florida Supreme Court," Feb. 5, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Florida Supreme Court, "Justice Jorge Labarga," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Florida Bar, "Jorge Labarga: Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ BornGlorious.com, "Jorge Labarga," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ Palm Beach Daily, "Florida Chief Justice Labarga traces career rooted in childhood ideals," Sept. 24, 2016
- ↑ Florida Secretary of State, "Official Results," accessed June 22, 2021
- ↑ Florida Secretary of State, "Official results," accessed June 22, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
- ↑ Robert Crown Law Library, "Complaint for Declaratory Relief," accessed Oct. 11, 2020
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 The Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial District of Florida in and for Palm Beach County, "Fladell v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board," Nov. 20, 2000
- ↑ Oyez, "Foster v. Love," accessed Oct. 11, 2020
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Florida; Judicial Nominating Commissions," archived January 13, 2012
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial selection: Florida," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ Florida Constitution, "Article V, Section 8," accessed September 10, 2021
Federal courts:
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Florida, Southern District of Florida • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Florida, Southern District of Florida
State courts:
Florida Supreme Court • Florida District Courts of Appeal • Florida Circuit Court • Florida County Court
State resources:
Courts in Florida • Florida judicial elections • Judicial selection in Florida
| ||||||||||
 |
State of Florida Tallahassee (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |
