Peggy Ann Quince (born January 3, 1948) is a former justice of the

Supreme Court of Florida 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 ...

, having previously served as chief justice from July 1, 2008, until June 30, 2010. Quince was the second African American and third woman to serve as chief justice.Jan Pudlow, "Peggy Ann Quince, Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court", '' The Florida Bar Journal'', Vol, 82, No. 9 (October 2008), p. 11–20. She had been a justice of the Court since 1999, and was the first African-American woman to sit on the state's highest Court and the third female Justice. From 1993 to 1997, she served as a judge on Florida's Second District Court of Appeal. On July 1, 2008, Quince assumed the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida for two years, the first African-American woman to head any branch of Florida government.

Biography

Quince was raised by her father, Solomon Quince, a civilian employee of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, in

Chesapeake, Virginia Chesapeake is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 249,422, it is the second-most populous independent city in Virginia, tenth-largest in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 90th ...

. The second of five children, she had to attend segregated schools, but she excelled as a student. Quince attended

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 ...

as an undergraduate, and received her

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 ...

from the

Columbus School of Law The Columbus School of Law, also known as Catholic Law or CUA Law, is the law school of the Catholic University of America, a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. More than 400 Juris Doctor students attend Catholic Law ...

The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution ...

in 1975. Justice Quince is a member of

Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen stud ...

.Quince Elected Chief Justice of Florida Supreme Court
. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Retrieved March 19, 2008. From 1980 to 1993, she worked in the Criminal Division of the Florida Attorney General's office, the last five years as bureau chief for

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

appeals.

Appointment

Quince is the only Supreme Court Justice in Florida history to be appointed simultaneously by more than one Governor. Because her term began the exact moment that Governor-elect

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 ...

assumed his office, in order to avoid potential future controversy over her appointment, Bush worked out a joint agreement with lame duck Governor

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 ...

whereby they both agreed upon and jointly announced Quince's appointment in December 1998. When Chiles died of a heart attack a few days later, the task of signing Quince's commission to office fell to Chiles' temporary successor, Governor

Buddy MacKay Kenneth Hood "Buddy" MacKay Jr. (born March 22, 1933) is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 42nd governor of Florida for 24 days from December 1998 to January 1999, upon the death of Lawton Chiles. A member of the Democratic P ...

. Thus, three Governors were involved in Quince's appointment.

References

External links

Florida Supreme Court page on Peggy A. Quince
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quince, Peggy A. 1948 births Living people Columbus School of Law alumni Howard University alumni Women in Florida politics African-American people in Florida politics African-American judges Justices of the Florida Supreme Court Chief Justices of the Florida Supreme Court Politicians from Norfolk, Virginia Women chief justices of state supreme courts in the United States 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges Politicians from Chesapeake, Virginia 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American people

Biography

Appointment

See also

References

External links