Charlene Vanessa Edwards Honeywell (born November 19, 1957) is a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida (in case citations, M.D. Fla.) is a federal court in the Eleventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appea ...

Early life and education

Born in

Deerfield Beach Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, just south of the Palm Beach County line. The city is named for the numerous deer that once roamed the area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,859. It is a principal ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, Honeywell graduated from

Pompano Beach High School Pompano Beach High School (formerly Pompano High School, Pompano Beach Senior High School and The Pompano Beach High School Institute of International Studies) is a college-preparatory school located in Pompano Beach, Florida, which instructs gr ...

in 1975.Phyllis J. Neuberger
Home town girl, Judge Charlene Honeywell, gets Obama nomination to Florida Federal Court
''The Pompano Pelican''. She then graduated from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

in 1979 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in political science. Honeywell earned a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

in December 1981 from the

Fredric G. Levin College of Law The University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law (UF Law) is the law school of the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest operating public law school in Florida, and second oldest overall ...

at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

.President Obama Nominates Charlene Honeywell and Jeffrey Viken to Serve on the Federal District Court Bench
, ''

whitehouse.gov whitehouse.gov (also simply known as wh.gov) is the official website of the White House and is managed by the Office of Digital Strategy. It was launched on July 29, 1994 by the Clinton administration. The content of the website is in the ...

'' (June 25, 2009).

Professional career

From 1982 until 1985, Honeywell served in the

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

, Florida public defender's office, and then spent two years as an assistant public defender in the

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

public defender's office. From November 1987 until June 1994, Honeywell served as an assistant city attorney for the City of Tampa and then spent six years at the Tampa law firm of Hill, Ward & Henderson, where she was a senior associate from 1995 until 1997 and then a partner from 1997 until December 2000.

State judicial service

In 1994,

Florida Governor The governor of Florida is the head of government of the state of Florida and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Florida ...

Lawton Chiles Lawton Mainor Chiles Jr. (April 3, 1930 – December 12, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 41st governor of Florida from 1991 until his death in 1998. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a United States ...

appointed Honeywell to be county court judge in Florida's Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.David Karp
Defeat became blessing for judge
''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'' (February 11, 2002).Nicole Hutcheson
Former Hillsborough Circuit Judge Charlene Honeywell is sworn in as U.S. district judge
, ''

'' (January 30, 2010). She served from July 1, 1994 until December 31, 1994, but narrowly lost a bid for reelection in the fall of 1994 to attorney Frank Gomez. In 1999, Honeywell applied for an opening on the

Florida Circuit Courts The Florida circuit courts are State court (United States), state courts, and are trial courts of original jurisdiction for most controversies. In Florida, the circuit courts are one of four types of courts created by the Florida Constitution (the ...

, inspired in part by the appointment of Peggy Quince as the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

female justice on the

Florida Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. It consists of seven members: the chief justice and six justices. Six members are chosen from six districts around the state to foster geographic diversity, and one ...

. In 2000, Florida Governor

Jeb Bush John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. Bush, who grew up in Houston, was the second son of former President George H. W. Bush a ...

appointed Honeywell to a judicial post on the Thirteenth Circuit, which she held from January 2001 until becoming a federal judge in 2009.

Federal judicial service

On June 25, 2009, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

nominated Honeywell to fill the seat vacated by Susan C. Bucklew on the

. The

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

confirmed Honeywell's nomination by an 88–0 vote on November 9, 2009.On the Nomination (Confirmation Charlene Edwards Honeywell, of Florida, to be U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Florida)
''senate.gov'' November 9, 2009 Honeywell received her commission on November 12, 2009. She currently sits on the Tampa station of the court.

References

External links