Judge Barbara Lagoa and Judge Robert J. Luck

President Donald Trump Thursday announced his intent to nominate two South Florida judges—Justices Barbara Lagoa and Robert J. Luck—to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

The decision comes after speculation the court would lean right politically, as the president weighed lifetime appointments to replace two outgoing Floridian jurists, Stanley Marcus and Gerald Bard Tjoflat, who took senior status.

"Justices Barbara Lagoa and Robert Luck have served Florida well as lawyers and jurists, and both are highly qualified to provide their knowledge and expertise to the entire country," Florida Bar president John M. Stewart said. "It is well known throughout Florida that they have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to apply the law to reach fair and just outcomes."

Both candidates rose to Florida's highest court in January from the state's Third District Court of Appeal.

Lagoa was among a group of lawyers who represented the Miami family of Elian Gonzalez, who as a young boy in 2000 became the center of an international custody and immigration battle. Lagoa's appointment to the Florida Supreme Court by Gov. Ron DeSantis made her the first woman of Hispanic descent on that bench. She had served on Florida's Third District Court of Appeal since her 2006 appointment by then-Gov. Jeb Bush. Before rising to the judiciary, Lagoa was a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida, and had spent 11 years in private practice in Miami. She had also chaired the Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee from 2015 to 2016.

Lagoa graduated cum laude from Florida International University. She earned her juris doctor from Columbia Law School, where she was associate editor of the law review.

Luck was a district judge who rose from the Miami-Dade Circuit Court,  where he'd served since 2013. Before taking the bench, he was an assistant U.S. attorney. He was also an adjunct professor from 2007 to 2008 at Alabama State University, where he taught an undergraduate class in business law. Luck clerked for then-Circuit Judge Ed Carnes, whom he also later served as a staff attorney. He completed undergraduate studies with highest honors from the University of Florida. He  earned his law  degree magna cum laude from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as editor-in-chief of the Florida Law Review.

Trump also announced plans to nominate Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Robinson to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Robinson has been a federal prosecutor since 1998 and senior litigation counsel in the U.S. Attorney's Office since 2005. He did his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed his law degree, cum laude, at Georgetown University Law Center.

Among the president's other judicial nominees: U.S. Attorney Sherri A. Lydon to serve as a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina; and Superior Court Judge Scott H. Rash for the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.