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Stephan Mickle, the federal judge who struck down a portion of the state's plan to increase minority participation in state contracts, is accustomed to leading.
Mickle, 59, was the first African-American to receive an undergraduate degree from the University of Florida in 1965. After receiving a master's degree in education the next year, Mickle became the second African-American to earn a law degree from Florida in 1970.
"I had to undergo a transformation, and so did UF," Mickle told the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale in an article published in 2001. "I never had a class with another black student, not as an undergraduate, in graduate school or in law school."
After law school and 10 years in private practice, Mickle joined the bench in 1979, serving as a county judge in Alachua County. From there, he spent 13 years serving in Eighth Judicial Circuit. In 1992, he was named an appellate judge in Tallahassee.
Six years later he was recommended by Sen. Bob Graham to fill a federal bench vacancy in the Northern District of Florida. He became the first African-American to serve in that role.
"For most of the past 30 years, Stephan Mickle's name has been associated with outstanding legal, judicial, and community service," Graham said in announcing Mickle's recommendation. "I am certain that this pattern of excellence will continue during his service as a federal judge."
Mickle was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate and began serving in June 1998. Since then, he's handled several high profile cases. Last May, Mickle sentenced a Tallahassee man to 27 months in federal prison after he drove his pickup into a mosque and yelled anti-Muslim threats.
In 2002, he gave a sports agent the maximum penalty allowed under federal law, five years in prison, after the agent swindled his professional athlete clients for up to $12-million. And in 2000, Mickle ordered a man who practiced medicine for 17 years without a medical degree to pay nearly $5-million in restitution.
Mickle also serves as an adjunct professor at UF law school and was a member of the school's Board of Trustees, according to his resume. He's married and has four children.