The Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida. Its twelve judges have jurisdiction over cases arising in Palm Beach County, Broward County, St. Lucie County, Martin County, Indian River County, and Okeechobee County.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal was created in 1965, and located in Vero Beach. In 1967, the Legislature relocated the Fourth District to West Palm Beach, and the Court moved to its permanent site on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard in 1970.
| Name [1] | Appointed | Chief Judge | Current Term Expires | Appointing Governor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spencer D. Levine | 2009 | July 1, 2019 – present | 2023 | Charlie Crist, Republican |
| Martha C. Warner | 1989 | July 1, 1999 – June 30, 2001 | 2021 | Bob Martinez, Republican |
| Robert M. Gross | 1995 | December 1, 2008 – June 30, 2011 | 2023 | Lawton Chiles, Democrat |
| Melanie G. May | 2002 | July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2013 | 2023 | Jeb Bush, Republican |
| Dorian K. Damoorgian | 2008 | July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2015 | 2023 | Charlie Crist, Republican |
| Cory J. Ciklin | 2008 | July 1, 2015 – June 30, 2017 | 2023 | Charlie Crist, Republican |
| Jonathan D. Gerber | 2009 | July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2019 | 2023 | Charlie Crist, Republican |
| Burton C. Conner | 2011 | – | 2025 | Rick Scott, Republican |
| Alan O. Forst | 2013 | – | 2021 | Rick Scott, Republican |
| Mark W. Klingensmith | 2013 | – | 2021 | Rick Scott, Republican |
| Jeffrey T. Kuntz | 2016 | – | 2025 | Rick Scott, Republican |
| Edward L. Artau | 2020 | – | 2023 | Ron DeSantis, Republican |
| Charles O. Andrews, Jr. | 1965–1967 |
| Sherman N. Smith, Jr. | 1965–1967 |
| James H. Walden | 1965–1976 \ 1982–1990 |
| Spencer C. Cross | 1967–1979 |
| David L. McCain | 1967–1970 |
| John L. Reed, Jr. | 1967–1973 |
| William C. Owen, Jr. | 1967–1976 |
| Gerald Mager | 1970–1977 |
| James C. Downey | 1973–1992 |
| James E. Alderman | 1976–1978 |
| Harry Lee Anstead | 1977–1994 |
| James C. Dauksch | 1977–1979 |
| Gavin K. Letts | 1977–1993 |
| John H. Moore II | 1977–1981 |
| John R. Beranek | 1978–1984 |
| George W. Hersey | 1979–1995 |
| Hugh S. Glickstein | 1979–1998 |
| Daniel T. K. Hurley | 1979–1986 |
| John W. Dell | 1981–2001 |
| Rosemary Barkett | 1984–1985 |
| Bobby W. Gunther | 1986–2007 |
| Barry J. Stone | 1986–2008 |
| Mark E. Polen | 1989–2013 |
| Eugene Garrett | 1989–1993 |
| Gary M. Farmer | 1991–2010 |
| Larry A. Klein | 1993–2009 |
| Barbara Pariente | 1993–1997 |
| W. Matthew Stevenson | 1993–2016 |
| George A. Shahood | 1995–2009 |
| Fred A. Hazouri | 1998–2013 |
| Carol Y. Taylor | 1998–2020 |
| Jorge Labarga | 2008 |
List of members on the Fourth District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission:
Flagler County is a county located in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 115,378. Its county seat is Bunnell, and the largest city is Palm Coast. Created in 1917 from portions of Saint Johns and Volusia Counties, it was named for Henry Flagler, who built the Florida East Coast Railway.
Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's third-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and Broward County and the 26th-most populous in the United States, with 1,492,191 residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is West Palm Beach, which had a population of 117,415 as of 2020. Named after one of its oldest settlements, Palm Beach, the county was established in 1909, after being split from Miami-Dade County. The county's modern-day boundaries were established in 1963.
Palm Coast is a city in Flagler County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 89,258, an increase of almost 200% since the 2000 count of 32,832. The population was estimated to be 98,411 as of July 1, 2022. It is the most populous city in Flagler County. Palm Coast is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, FL metropolitan statistical area.
West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida is the federal United States district court with territorial jurisdiction over the southern part of the state of Florida.
The district courts of appeal (DCAs) are the intermediate appellate courts of the Florida state court system. There are currently six DCAs:
Barbara Joan Pariente is an attorney and jurist from Florida. She was chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court from July 1, 2004, until June 30, 2006. Pariente is the second woman to hold the position of chief justice and served on the court from 1997 to 2019. From 1993 to 1997 she was a judge on Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal.
Jorge Labarga is a justice of the Florida Supreme Court, taking office on January 6, 2009. On June 30, 2014, he was sworn in as Florida's 56th Chief Justice and the first Cuban-American to hold the post. He was succeeded on July 1, 2018, by Charles T. Canady.
The Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Florida since January 6, 2015, as a result of a ruling in Brenner v. Scott from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The court ruled the state's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional on August 21, 2014. The order was stayed temporarily. State attempts at extending the stay failed, with the U.S. Supreme Court denying further extension on December 19, 2014. In addition, a state court ruling in Pareto v. Ruvin allowed same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses in Miami-Dade County on the afternoon of January 5, 2015. In another state case challenging the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples, a Monroe County court in Huntsman v. Heavilin stayed enforcement of its decision pending appeal and the stay expired on January 6, 2015. Florida was the 35th U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.
The Florida circuit courts are state courts and 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.
Daniel Thomas Kozachi Hurley is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Shutts & Bowen LLP is an AmLaw 200 law firm with 270 attorneys in eight offices in the state of Florida. Shutts & Bowen was founded in 1910. Frank B. Shutts came to Miami in 1909 and became the legal representative of Henry Flagler and the Florida East Coast Railway Company. In 1910, he formed a professional association with Henry F. Atkinson.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Florida have federal protections, but many face legal difficulties on the state level that are not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity became legal in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas on June 26, 2003, although the state legislature has not repealed its sodomy law. Same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since January 6, 2015. Discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations is outlawed following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County. In addition, several cities and counties, comprising about 55 percent of Florida's population, have enacted anti-discrimination ordinances. These include Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and West Palm Beach, among others. Conversion therapy is also banned in a number of cities in the state, mainly in the Miami metropolitan area, but has been struck down by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. In September 2023, Lake Worth Beach, Florida became an official "LGBT sanctuary city" to protect and defend LGBT rights.
Lois Jane Frankel is an American politician and lawyer who has been the United States representative for Florida's 22nd congressional district since 2023 and from 2013 to 2017 and Florida’s 21st congressional district from 2017 to 2023. As a member of the Democratic Party, Frankel was a 7-term member of the Florida House of Representatives and a two-term mayor of West Palm Beach.
The Florida State Courts System is the unified state court system of Florida.
Isiah C. Smith (1922–2012) was a judge and civil rights attorney. He was Palm Beach County, Florida's third black lawyer. He and William Holland, Palm Beach County's first black attorney, fought successfully to integrate the county's schools, golf courses, department stores, airport taxi service, and the Florida Turnpike's restaurants and bathrooms through lawsuits and negotiations in the mid-1950s. While working with Holland at their practice, Smith also served part-time as Delray Beach City Prosecutor from 1970 to 1977. In 1986, he was appointed by Governor Bob Graham to become a circuit judge for Palm Beach County. He stepped down in 1992, having reached the age of 70, the mandatory retirement age in Florida for jurists.
Aileen Mercedes Cannon is a Colombian-born American lawyer serving since 2020 as a United States federal judge in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida. President Donald Trump nominated and appointed Cannon to the federal bench after confirmation by the US Senate in November 2020. Cannon worked for the corporate law firm Gibson Dunn from 2009 to 2012 and was a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida from 2013 to 2020.