James Lawrence King

James Lawrence King (born on December 20, 1927 in Miami, Florida) is the senior federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and one of the longest serving federal judges in the entire United States.[1] Judge King was appointed to his current position on October 30, 1970 by President Richard Nixon. Although a life long Democrat himself, Judge King's nomination was forced on Nixon as a precondition to other nominees' approval by the Senate. From 1984-1991, he served as the Chief Judge for the Southern District of Florida. On April 30, 1996, the U.S. Congress named the United States Courthouse in Miami the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building.

Judge King has presided over some remarkable cases during his tenure. In 1981, he over-ruled the State of Florida in determining that treasure hunter Mel Fisher was the rightful owner of treasure salvaged from the 1715 wreck of a Spanish galleon, in the Cobb Coin case. In 1999 he ruled that relatives of the Brothers to the Rescue pilots shot down by the Cuban Air Force could sue Cuba for wrongful death. He also dismissed challenges to Florida's felony disenfranchisement law and Florida's prohibition against homosexual adoption. Judge King was ultimately affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit in both cases.

Judge King was born in Miami, and received both his bachelors degree from the University of Florida in 1949 and his law degree from the University of Florida College of Law in 1953. He where he was a member of the law review and Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity.[2]

King served in the U.S. Air Force from 1953 to 1955 and was in a private law practice in Miami, Florida from 1953 until 1964 when he became a member of the Florida Board of Regents. Fron 1964 until 1970, he was a circuit judge in the 11th Juducial Court of Florida from 1964 until 1970. In 1965, he was an associate justice of the Florida Supreme Court and was an associate justice of the Third District Court of Appeals of Florida in 1966 and 1967.