Jim Rosica
Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga “is resting comfortably amid a room full of Florida ‘Gator gifts and balloons from well-wishers” after successful surgery for kidney cancer, a court spokesman said Thursday.
Labarga, who got his bachelor and law degrees from the University of Florida, underwent the operation at Shands Hospital in Gainesville this week.
The 62-year-old had been diagnosed following a routine physical earlier this year.
“Doctors found no signs that the cancer had spread and predict a full and quick recovery,” spokesman Craig Waters said.
Labarga, the first chief justice of Hispanic descent, was even back at work from his hospital bed using remote equipment, Waters added.
The court’s biographical page for Labarga is here. He joined the court in 2009.
Gov. Lawton Chiles first appointed him to the Circuit Court in Palm Beach County in 1996.
Labarga was one of several trial judges across the state involved in the 2000 presidential election challenge in Florida.
In December 2008, Gov. Charlie Crist tapped him for the 4th District Court of Appeal. The next month, Crist moved him to the Supreme Court.
In June 2014, he was sworn in as the state ‘s 56th chief justice.
