Florida Supreme Court Elects John Couriel Chief Justice

The Florida Supreme Court has unanimously elected John D. Couriel for a two-year term as chief justice, beginning on July 1. He succeeds Carlos Muñiz, who will remain on the court after completing his second term as chief justice on June 30.

Couriel, 48, has served on the Florida Supreme Court since 2000, when he was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Six of the seven justices on the court are DeSantis appointees.

“I am grateful to my colleagues for their trust,” Justice Couriel said in a press release, “and am indebted to the previous chief justices with whom I’ve served. I will do my best to serve the people of Florida as they so ably have.”

Before his selection to the court, Couriel, a Miami native, was a partner at Kobre & Kim LLP, an international law firm specializing in disputes and investigations. Before that, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the criminal division of the Southern District of Florida. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and his juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.

Couriel was once a political candidate, running unsuccessfully as a Republican for the Florida Senate in 2012 and the House in 2016. He applied for appointment in 1999 to the U.S. District Court in Miami and was nominated in 2018 for a seat on the Florida Supreme Court.

He’s been a member of the libertarian-conservative Federalist Society since 2000, and is a first-generation Cuban American, his parents having arrived separately in 1961. (His father was among 14,000 Cuban children airlifted into South Florida during Operation Pedro Pan.)

Jorge Labarga is now the lone justice serving on the Florida Supreme Court who was not appointed by DeSantis. He was placed on the court by then-Gov. Charlie Crist in 2009. He is 73 years old, but will turn 75 in October 2028, meaning he must retire due to age term-limits before the 2028 election.