President Donald Trump's impending nomination of Justices Barbara Lagoa and Robert J. Luck to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit is the latest development in a year of meteoric rises for the South Florida judges.

Both justices rose to the Florida Supreme Court in January, and for Luck, Thursday's news of another elevation came even before he'd attended his state high court investiture.

Trump plans to nominate Lagoa and Luck to replace Judges Stanley Marcus and Gerald Bard Tjoflat, who will take senior status. The justices both served on Florida's Third District Court of Appeal. They joined the Florida high court alongside Carlos Muñiz, following the mandatory retirement of Justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince.

Both judges hail from South Florida and have enjoyed a quick ascent through the judicial ranks under state Republican—and now federal—administrations.

As reported by the Courthouse News Service, Lagoa and Luck have ties to the Federalist Society, an organization that advocates for conservative jurisprudence in American courts.

And Lagoa is married to Paul C. Huck Jr., a partner with Jones Day in Miami. Huck, whose father is a senior judge for the Southern District of Florida, served as general counsel to then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist from 2007 to 2008, and was appointed to the Miami-Dade Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission by U.S. senator and former Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

Lagoa, a Cuban-American who grew up in Hialeah, pursued her undergraduate studies at Florida International University before earning her Juris Doctor at Columbia Law School. She spent more than a decade as a private practitioner before becoming a federal prosecutor in 2003 in the Southern District of Florida. Three years later, she was appointed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to serve on the Third DCA in 2006.

Lagoa was the first Hispanic woman to serve on the Florida Supreme Court, although she followed in the wake of Rosemary Barkett, the former Spanish-speaking chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court. Barkett, who is of Syrian descent and was born in Mexico, also joined the Eleventh Circuit after serving on the state supreme court.

Luck has enjoyed a near-unprecedented rise through the ranks, having been nominated to a federal appeals court a little less than 13 years after he was first admitted to the Florida Bar in September 2006. He's not unfamiliar with the Eleventh Circuit, having previously served as a law clerk for Chief Judge Edward Carnes. Luck subsequently joined Greenberg Traurig as an appellate attorney and worked as a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida from 2008 to 2013. After beginning a stint as a Miami-Dade Circuit judge in 2013, he was chosen by Scott to join the Third DCA in 2017.

DeSantis and other prominent Florida political figures, including Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez and Senate President Bill Galvano, released statements applauding Lagoa and Luck's nominations.

"President Trump has demonstrated great judgment in nominating Justices Barbara Lagoa and Robert Luck to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit," DeSantis said. "I appointed these two Justices to the Florida Supreme Court for their demonstrated understanding of the Constitution and the appropriate role of the judiciary. We are proud of these two Floridians who have earned the respect of many for being great jurists and public servants. They will serve our nation well."

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