Labarga will serve second term as chief.

Jorge Labarga became the first person of Hispanic descent to lead Florida's judicial system as its chief justice. On July 1 he will become the state's first chief justice to succeed himself in that office since the end of the Civil War.

The other members of the Florida Supreme Court chose Labarga to serve a second two-year term as chief justice and administrative head of the state judicial branch starting in July.

"It is a privilege to serve the people of Florida," Labarga said. "My second term will continue the work started during the first--especially the efforts of the Access to Civil Justice Commission and implementation of both our new long-range plan and the first comprehensive statewide communications plan developed for the state courts system."

Only the second Cuban-American appointed to Florida's high court, Labarga, 63, came to Florida as an 11-year-old after the Cuban revolution. He graduated from Forest Hill High School in West Palm Beach and, from there, earned his bachelor's degree in political science in 1976 from the University of Florida. Labarga remained at the university to attend law school and received his law degree in 1979.

No Florida chief justice has succeeded himself in office since Charles H. DuPont at the end of the Civil War. Elected chief justice in 1860, DuPont served during the war and then succeeded himself in 1865 when the federal government forced the state to adopt a new constitution that, among other things, gave the governor power to appoint the chief justice with approval of the state Senate.

Labarga also will become the first person to serve more than a single term as chief justice since the late Justice B.K. Roberts held the post for a third non-consecutive term from 1971 to 1973. This was at a time when scandals at the Supreme Court interrupted the normal succession...