Rosemary Barkett

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Rosemary Barkett (born in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 1939) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Prior to her nomination for that post, she was Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, where she was the first woman ever to serve on that court.

Barkett has had an unusual career path for a judge. One of nine children born in Mexico to parents of Syrian descent, she moved to Miami, Florida in January, 1946 at the age of six. Because she did not learn English until she came to Miami (she only knew Spanish), some people consider her the first Hispanic judge to serve on the Florida Supreme Court. For approximately 10 years - from 1957 to 1967, she was a nun in the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph. During much of that time, from 1960 to 1968, she also taught elementary school and junior high school classes in Tampa, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine, Florida. She received her J.D. from the University of Florida College of Law in 1970. After nearly a decade in private practice, Barkett was appointed as a circuit court judge in 1979, by Governor Bob Graham. She advanced to higher judicial offices, and in 1985 was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court. She became Chief Justice in 1992.

On September 24, 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Barkett to a seat on the 11th Circuit vacated by Paul Hitch Roney. She was confirmed by the Senate on April 14, 1994, and received her commission on April 15, 1994.

Once on President Clinton's short list for the Supreme Court, Barkett was used in attack ads when Robert Dole ran for President as an example of a liberal activist judge.