Ursula Mancusi Ungaro (formerly Ungaro-Benages; born January 29, 1951) is a former
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
.
Education
Ungaro was born in 1951 in
Miami Beach
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...
,
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 ...
. She graduated from the
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...
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
Degree may refer to:
As a unit of measurement
* Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement
** Degree of geographical latitude
** Degree of geographical longitude
* Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics
...
in 1973 and from the
University of Florida 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 ...
with 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 1975.
Career
Ungaro was in private practice in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
from 1976 to 1987. Ungaro practiced at Frates Floyd Pearson Stewart Richman & Greer from 1976 to 1978, Blackwell Walker Gray Powers Flick & Hoelhl from 1978 to 1980, Finley Kumble Heine Underberg Manley & Casey from 1980 to 1985, and was a shareholder at Sparber Shevin Shapo Heilbronner & Book, P.A. from 1985 to 1987. Ungaro was a judge of the
Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida from 1987 to 1992.
Federal judicial service
President
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
nominated Ungaro-Benages to the
on November 26, 1991, to the new seat created by 104 Stat. 5089. She was
confirmed
In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...
by the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
on October 8, 1992, and she received
commission on October 9, 1992.
She assumed
senior status
Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...
on May 2, 2021, and retired on May 31, 2021, to join the Boies Schiller law firm. In 2022
The Daily Business Reviewhonored her with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement award.
Notable cases
On September 10, 1998, Judge Ungaro-Benages (presiding in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida) ruled that an Establishment Clause challenge to Congress's 1954 addition of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance was "so patently lacking in merit as to be frivolous." The plaintiff in that case subsequently filed a similar lawsuit in California, where the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals eventually ruled in the plaintiff's favor.
On April 26, 2012, Ungaro ruled that an order issued by Florida Governor
Rick Scott
Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers, born December 1, 1952) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Florida since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019.
Scott ...
to randomly drug test 80,000 Florida state workers was unconstitutional. Ungaro found that Scott had not demonstrated that there was a compelling reason for the tests and that, as a result, they were an
unreasonable search in violation of the Constitution.
On December 19, 2018, Ungaro ruled, in Gubarev v. Buzzfeed, that Buzzfeed had not committed defamation in printing, in full, the Steele dossier. The claim was brought by Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian internet entrepreneur, who claimed to have been defamed by the publishing of the dossier by the media company, Buzzfeed. In part, Ungaro ruled the law of defamation does not equally apply to media institutions and does not require institutions to spend considerable resources to go line by line and determine the veracity of every claim in news reports. Ruling "Such a line-by-line review would curtail the scope of the privilege and thus restrict the press’s ability to serve its basic function." For Buzzfeed, the use of a hyperlink citing a CNN article which contained a two-page synopsis of the report was sufficient to allow Buzzfeed to publish the report. The lawyers for Gubarev vowed to appeal the decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and specifically intend to argue the hyperlink to the original CNN article was insufficient. Buzzfeed's counsel praised the ruling "We are extremely pleased that Judge Ungaro affirmed our client’s First Amendment rights in this matter. Fighting against restraints on reporting and maintaining public confidence in the constitutionally-mandated right to a free and unfettered press is vitally important, perhaps more so now than ever. The ruling is a strong affirmation of the First Amendment. It’s more important that the public know what is being discussed at the highest levels of government than anything else. If BuzzFeed had not published, citizens would not understand the current conflict between the president and the other branches of government, as well as the conflict between the president and the special counsel."
On May 9, 2018, Judge Ungaro was assigned an FDA Case (US Vs US Stem Cells). The FDA is attempting to stop stem cell clinics from operating and selling an adipose tissue derived product called Stromal Vascular Fraction. Customers would undergo a minor liposuction to harvest stem cells which would then be used to treat various health issues.
US Stem Cells Inc. had a permanent injunction granted against them on June 3, 2019 to stop performing Stromal Vascular Fraction procedures. Judge Ungaro released a stay order on July 19, 2019 to delay the destruction of the banked cells.
On June 2, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed Judge Ungaro's ruling, holding that U.S. Stem Cell's stem cell therapy did not fall under any exceptions to FDA regulation.
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ungaro, Ursula Mancusi
1951 births
Living people
20th-century American judges
20th-century American women judges
21st-century American judges
21st-century American women judges
Fredric G. Levin College of Law alumni
Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
People from Miami Beach, Florida
United States district court judges appointed by George H. W. Bush
University of Miami alumni