Peggy Quince

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Peggy A. Quince (born 1948) has been a Justice of the Florida Supreme Court since 1999. She is 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.

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 in-coming Gov. Jeb Bush assumed his office, in order to avoid potential future controversy over her appointment, Bush worked out a joint agreement with out-going Gov. Lawton Chiles whereby they both agreed upon and jointly announced Quince's appointment in December 1998. When Gov. Chiles died of a heart attack a few days later, the task of signing Quince's commission to office fell to Chiles' temporary successor, Gov. Buddy MacKay. Thus, three Governors were involved in Quince's appointment.

Quince attended Howard University as an undergraduate, and received her Juris Doctor from the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America in 1975.