Charles T. Canady

Charles Terrance Canady (born June 22, 1954) is an American attorney and judge serving on the Supreme Court of Florida since 2008. He previously served as Chief Justice from 2010 to 2012 and from 2018 to 2022. Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, Canady was a judge on Florida's Second District Court of Appeal from 2002 to 2008, and a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 2001. Early life and career Born in Lakeland, Florida, Canady graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Haverford College in 1976 and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1979. He was admitted to the bar the same year and began his practice in Lakeland. In 1983, he was hired as the legal counsel for the Central Florida Regional Planning Commission. From 1984 to 1990, Canady served as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, initially elected as a conservative Democrat, he switched parties in June 1989. The change created many hard feelings as it happened after he accepted Democratic money for his re-election campaign. He ran for the Florida State Senate in 1990, but was unsuccessful. U.S. House of Representatives In 1992, Canady made a successful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives, narrowly defeating his Democratic opponent Tom Mims. In Congress, Canady was credited for coining the term "partial-birth abortion" while developing the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1995. According to Keri Folmar, the lawyer responsible for the bill's language, the term was developed in early 1995 in a meeting among herself, Canady and National Right to Life Committee lobbyist Douglas Johnson. Canady could not find this particular abortion practice named in any medical textbook and therefore he and his aides named it. He was one of the House managers appointed to prosecute the impeachment trial proceedings of President Bill Clinton. He did not seek re-election to a fifth term in 2000, keeping a term limits pledge he made in 1992.