Muniz Joins the Supreme Court
Carlos G. Muñiz, a veteran government lawyer hailed as a “top flight intellect” was appointed January 22 by Gov. Ron DeSantis to become the 89th justice to the Florida Supreme Court.
“I think that Carlos has done law at the really highest level,” DeSantis said. “I just couldn’t be prouder to elevate somebody of his intellectual stature to the Supreme Court.”
Muñiz served most recently as general counsel to the U.S. Department of Education under Secretary Betsy Devos, and before that, a three-year stint as deputy attorney general and chief of staff to former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Surrounded by his wife and children at a hastily called press conference in front of the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee, Muñiz thanked DeSantis and pledged to be a fair justice who would work with his colleagues to make the Florida Supreme Court “a model for the nation.”
“In my new role, I will have the solemn duty to set aside my own policy preferences,” he said. “I wholeheartedly welcome that obligation, and as I begin this assignment, I’d like to make three commitments — to excellence, to humility and to liberty.”
In a nod to a DeSantis campaign promise, Muñiz also pledged not to legislate from the bench.
“For a judge, humility means an unwavering respect for separation of powers,” Muñiz said. “The role of a judge is to preserve the constitution, not to add to it, or subtract from it.”
A 1997 Yale Law School graduate, Muñiz is a former editor of the Yale Law Journal. After earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia in 1991, Muñiz started his career working for the U.S. Department of Justice.
After law school, Muñiz served two federal clerkships, the first with Judge Thomas A. Flannery on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and the second with Judge Jose A. Cabranes on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
His voice quavering, Muñiz said he will be “eternally grateful,” to two of Florida’s most influential political leaders.
“The path that led me to this day really began 18 years ago when Jeb Bush and Charles Canady gave me the opportunity to move to Florida and work in the governor’s legal office,” Muñiz said. “That one opportunity from Gov. Bush and (now,) Chief Justice Canady, was the gateway to so many blessings in my personal and professional life. I will be eternally grateful to those men.”
After serving as deputy general counsel under then General Counsel Canady, Muñiz went on to serve as general counsel for the Florida Department of Financial Services and as deputy chief of staff and counsel for the Florida House of Representatives under then Speaker Marco Rubio.
Muñiz has also worked in private practice for the top Washington, D.C. firm, Hogan & Hartson, as well as Gray Robinson, P.A., and McGuire Woods. His specialties included defending businesses in government investigations, civil litigation, commercial disputes, constitutional and civil rights law, and administrative law.
Muñiz is the third appointment DeSantis has made since he was sworn in as governor in early January. A twist of fate and the Florida Constitution’s mandatory retirement age of 70 forced former Justices Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente, and Peggy Quince to step down the day DeSantis took office.
DeSantis waited only days to announce his first pick, former Third District Court of Appeal Judge Barbara Lagoa, the court’s first Cuban-American female justice. On January 14, DeSantis elevated another Miami native, Third District Court of Appeal Judge Robert J. Luck, calling him the first Jewish justice appointed in decades.
DeSantis said he wasn’t concerned that Muñiz has not had judicial experience, referring to former Florida Supreme Court Justice Charlie Wells. Wells was a respected Orlando trial lawyer with no judicial experience when then Gov. Lawton Chiles elevated him to the court in 1994.
“The people that have worked with him, beyond just the former attorney general and the governor, all say that this is a guy who is brilliant but, yet, humble; and that’s the type of intellectual firepower I want to see on the court.”