Barbara Lagoa

Barbara Lagoa (born November 2, 1967) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Prior to becoming a federal judge, she was the first Latina and Cuban American woman appointed to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of Florida. In 2020, Lagoa was a finalist to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, which ultimately went to Amy Coney Barrett. Early life and education Lagoa was born in Miami, Florida, in 1967. Lagoa's parents, Antonio and Araceli Lagoa, were Cuban immigrants who fled Cuba following the Cuban Revolution and the assumption of power by Fidel Castro. She grew up in the majority Cuban-American city of Hialeah, Florida. She is bilingual in English and Spanish. Lagoa studied English literature at Florida International University, graduating in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts cum laude and Phi Kappa Phi membership. She then attended Columbia Law School, where she was an associate editor of the Columbia Law Review. She graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1992.