Charlene Vanessa Edwards Honeywell (born November 19, 1957) is a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida (in case citations, M.D. Fla.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Eleventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against ...

Early life and education

Born in

Deerfield Beach, Florida Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, just south of the Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County line. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 86,859, making it the Broward County# ...

, Honeywell graduated from

Pompano Beach High School Pompano Beach High School (formerly Pompano High School, Pompano Beach Senior High School and The Pompano Beach High School Institute of International Studies) is a college-preparatory school located in Pompano Beach, Florida, which instructs g ...

in 1975.Phyllis J. Neuberger
Home town girl, Judge Charlene Honeywell, gets Obama nomination to Florida Federal Court
''The Pompano Pelican''. She then graduated from

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

in 1979 with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in political science. Honeywell earned a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

in December 1981 from the

Fredric G. Levin College of Law The University of Florida Levin College of Law (UF Law) is the law school of the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest operating public law school in Florida and second oldest overall in the stat ...

at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

.President Obama Nominates Charlene Honeywell and Jeffrey Viken to Serve on the Federal District Court Bench
, ''

whitehouse.gov whitehouse.gov or wh.gov is the official website of the White House and is managed by the Office of Digital Strategy of the White House Office under the Executive Office of the President of the United States. It was launched in 1994 by the ...

'' (June 25, 2009).

Career

From 1982 until 1985, Honeywell served in the

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2024, the est ...

Public Defender's office, and then spent two years as an assistant public defender in the

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

public defender's office. From November 1987 until June 1994, Honeywell served as an assistant city attorney for the City of Tampa and then spent six years at the Tampa law firm of Hill, Ward & Henderson, where she was a senior associate from 1995 until 1997 and then a partner from 1997 until December 2000.

State judicial service

In 1994,

Florida Governor The governor of Florida is the head of government of the U.S. state of Florida. The governor is the head of the executive branch of the government of Florida and is the commander-in-chief of the Florida National Guard and Florida State Gu ...

Lawton Chiles Lawton Mainor Chiles Jr. (April 3, 1930 – December 12, 1998) was an American politician and military officer. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senate, United States senator fr ...

appointed Honeywell to be judge in Hillsborough County Circuit Court.David Karp
Defeat became blessing for judge
''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', called the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute f ...

'' (February 11, 2002).Nicole Hutcheson
Former Hillsborough Circuit Judge Charlene Honeywell is sworn in as U.S. district judge
, ''

'' (January 30, 2010). She served from July 1, 1994 until December 31, 1994, but narrowly lost a bid for reelection in the fall of 1994 to attorney Frank Gomez. In 1999, Honeywell applied for an opening on the

Florida Circuit Courts The Florida circuit courts are State court (United States), state courts and trial courts of original jurisdiction for most controversies. In Florida, the circuit courts are one of four types of courts created by the Florida Constitution (the oth ...

, inspired in part by the appointment of

Peggy Quince Peggy Ann Quince (born January 3, 1948) is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Florida, having previously served as chief justice from July 1, 2008, until June 30, 2010. Quince was the second African American and third woman to serve as chi ...

as the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

female justice on the

Florida Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Florida is the state supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. It consists of seven justices—one of whom serves as Chief Justice. Six members are chosen from six districts around the state to foster geog ...

. In 2000, Florida Governor

Jeb Bush John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. A member of the Bush family, Bush political family, he was an unsuccessful candidate for pre ...

appointed Honeywell to a judicial post on the Thirteenth Circuit in Hillsborough County, which she held from January 2001 until becoming a federal judge in 2009.

Federal judicial service

On June 25, 2009, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

nominated Honeywell to fill the seat vacated by Susan C. Bucklew on the

. The

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

confirmed Honeywell's nomination by an 88–0 vote on November 9, 2009.On the Nomination (Confirmation Charlene Edwards Honeywell, of Florida, to be U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Florida)
''senate.gov'' November 9, 2009 Honeywell received her commission on November 12, 2009. She assumed senior status on December 4, 2023.

References

External links