Quince takes court’s helm
Quince takes court’s helm
Challenges lawyers to become GALs for foster kids
Senior Editor
When Peggy Quince moved to the center seat on the Florida Supreme Court bench and ceremoniously banged the gavel, the overflow crowd erupted into wild applause — witnessing history in the making.
“Justice Quince, you are a woman of honor. You are making history today as the first African-American female chief justice in the state of Florida,” Justice Barbara Pariente said June 27, moments before a small glitch of a missing Bible was solved by borrowing a pocket Bible from a well-wisher in the audience and swearing in her 60-year-old friend as leader of Florida’s courts.
“It is fitting that you, with your lifetime of tremendous achievements and dedicated service to this state, will continue to serve and shine as a role model — not only for African-Americans and women throughout the state, but for all Floridians: the young, the old, the rich and the poor, both men and women, Pensacolians and Miamians. Yes, all people, whatever their race or ethnic background,” Pariente continued.
“ I know that I speak for all of your colleagues on the court when I say that we are confident you will lead this branch with the utmost distinction and steadfast dedication to our mission to ensure justice for all Floridians.”
Quince will be put to the test as chief justice for the next two years, while the courts face unprecedented budget cuts and four justices leave the bench. Still, Quince optimistically launched a special initiative to recruit lawyers to volunteer as guardians ad litem for teenagers aging out of foster care, and vowed to continue Unified Family Courts, build on Justice Fred Lewis’ efforts to keep the mentally ill out of jails, and address perceived bias in the court system. The spirited celebration offered glimpses of how far Quince has come to reach this pinnacle of the legal profession. She asked her friends to stand and be recognized — her former classmates who had attended segregated schools in the eighth grade in Virginia and traveled from all over the country to joyfully share this momentous day.
Longtime friend Carolyn House Stewart described Quince as “a child with humble beginnings” who “faced her struggles with courage.”
Quince is the daughter of a longshoreman who never graduated from high school, but as a single parent raised five children and kept the family together, urging them to go to college.
“I know that her father, Solomon Quince, is smiling down from heaven today,” Stewart said, while the new chief justice’s eyes glistened.
Smiles and sighs broke out when Quince’s husband and lawyer Fred Buckine waxed romantically about his “black diamond.”
“Being a poor boy from Bradenton, I thought I’d get myself a black diamond because diamonds are very valuable. They’re beautiful, they’re hard, but they’re always there,” said Buckine, who met his wife in Washington, D.C., where Quince began her career after earning degrees from Howard University and Catholic University of America.
“Justice is not elusive,” Buckine said. “If you do good, good will come to you. My wife does good and good has come to her.”
Chronicling the good Quince has done, Stewart said the new chief justice’s real passion is inspiring young people, noting she mentors at middle and elementary schools, and leads walks for sickle cell research.
Her daughter, Peggy Buckine, a third-year law student at St. Thomas University and president of the Black Law Students Association, got a big laugh when she said: “We love you and know that the people of the state of Florida will be much better off with you in charge. You have been telling me what to do my entire life and it worked out.”
June McKinney, an administrative hearing judge who first met Quince at a Tallahassee Women Lawyers meeting, called her a dear friend and valued mentor.
“All of us can sleep well knowing she is at the helm of our court. She will serve with dignity and a strong sense of justice,” McKinney said.
Bob Butterworth, now secretary of the Department of Children and Families, was attorney general when he appointed Quince head of the Tampa bureau, where she supervised a team of about 20 lawyers in complex civil and death penalty cases.
Florida’s high court, Butterworth said, shows what “people can become with tenacity and courage and personal integrity. Our most recent chief justices have all overcome great adversity and barriers in their lives and have arrived at the most honored place in our profession — whether it be coming out of the coal hills of West Virginia [Lewis], a courageous and public conquest of cancer [Pariente], a child born of poverty [Harry Lee Anstead], and now a chief justice breaking through two glass ceilings to lead one of the largest and respected courts in the world.”
But Florida’s respected court has fallen victim to budget cuts, and the theme of tough times for the judicial branch was woven throughout the ceremony.
Florida Bar President Jay White said he looked forward to working with Chief Justice Quince, whom he described as “a strong voice for the judiciary, for our profession, for the poor, for the disadvantaged, for the oppressed, and for the citizens of Florida.”
One of the challenges the Bar and Supreme Court will work on together, White said, is finding sufficient core funding for the courts.
“We must find a permanent solution and permanent funding source for our judiciary now, or the quality of our judiciary will decline,” White said.
Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, spun a history lesson about James Madison and John Adams and the genius they showed creating three, co-equal, independent branches of government. Then, the senator who served on the appropriations committee for the courts, juxtaposed history to the 2008 Legislature’s draconian 10 percent cuts to the courts’ budget, even though it is only seven-tenths of 1 percent of a $66 billion state budget.
“It is indeed true that we face uncertain and rough economic waters, but the cuts the Legislature imposed on the judiciary are unconscionable,” Joyner said. “The judiciary cannot work on the cheap. There are no blue light specials for justice.. . . What group of people should lose 10 percent of justice?”
When Peggy Quince gave her first speech as chief justice, she, too, asked, “What is going to be left behind?”
“We have seen tremendous growth in the civil area of our courts, especially in foreclosures. I know that you won’t want to see those kinds of cases left on the back burner,” Quince said.
“We must, and we can with the help of everyone, make sure that the court system has the funding that it needs so that every citizen and every kind of case that comes to the court can be taken care of effectively and efficiently.”
More than a decade ago, Quince said, “we began a journey called Unified Family Courts, and that effort must continue. We are committed to the children and the families of this state. And we want to make sure that the legal system, making decisions about those children and those families, that we have in front of us all of the information that we need in order to make the best decisions for them.
“We must continue to use case managers and other court personnel and all the resources at our command to make sure this happens.”
Stressing children really are the future, Quince pointed out “that is why there are statutes and rules in this state which require the children in the state to be represented and have a voice in the cases that come before the court.”
Of 6,500 volunteers in the Guardian ad Litem Program that bring information in the best interest of children to the attention of judges, Quince said, only 700 are lawyers.
“Lawyers really do have the skills that can be effective in bringing children’s issues up before the court,” Quince said, adding that lawyers can receive CLE credits and pro bono hours for going through dependency training and representing older children in foster care who often soon find themselves on their own without a place to live or a job to make ends meet.
“I am asking the lawyers of this state to volunteer for the Fostering Independence Project for children who age out of foster care every year. Are they really ready to take their place as good and productive citizens of the state of Florida? I believe that with our help, the lawyers of this state, we can help them become productive citizens,” Quince said.
Thanking 11th Circuit Judge Gill Freeman for her leadership with the Standing Committee on Fairness and Diversity, Quince referred to a March report on perception of fairness in the court system.
“I am sad to say that in 2008 the citizens of this state still feel that the court system is not truly responsive to some of them. Our court, through leadership of Chief Justice Lewis, took the enormous step to decide all courts need to participate in diversity training. All of the courts have done so, including this court. We must continue in those efforts, and we will continue in those efforts.
“No one should come before the court system and feel that they have been treated unfairly. You may lose, but you still should come out of the court system feeling that you have been treated fairly,” Quince said.
“Bias, prejudice, really stem from lack of knowledge and understanding of other racial and ethnic groups. I think when people really get to know each other and understand something about other groups that we don’t allow ourselves to succumb to the stereotyping that we hear.”
Toward that end, Quince announced a task force, headed by Rachelle Munson, president of the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of the National Bar Association, June McKinney, and others, to work on oral and written histories of black lawyers of Florida from 1869-1979 — to be unveiled at The Florida Bar Annual Convention in Orlando in June 2009.
The task force has already gathered an oral history from Judge John Johnson, who served on the “City of Miami Negro Municipal Court” in the 1950s.
“Believe me, he has some stories to tell — moving and compelling and very sad,” Quince said.
Lastly, Quince turned to the pressing issue of the mentally ill and their impact on the judicial system.
“It is staggering to think there are half a million people with mental illnesses incarcerated in our jails and prisons across the United States. Another half million are on probation. Our jails and prisons should not continue to be our psychiatric hospitals that no longer exist,” Quince said.
“We cannot continue to spend the quarter of a billion dollars that we are spending annually on 1,800 forensic beds. This issue has got to be addressed and it has to be addressed soon,” Quince said, adding the courts will collaborate with DCF to continue the efforts Lewis made during his term as chief justice.
“I want to thank my colleagues for giving me this opportunity to serve the citizens of the state of Florida,” Quince concluded.
“I hope that I can live up to the legacy of those who have been there before — Justice Lewis, Justice Pariente, Justice Anstead, and Justice Wells. I look forward to your counsel, as I take my oath as chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.”
