Raoul G. Cantero, III is a Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 lawyer and a former Justice of the Florida Supreme Court

Florida Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the State of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. The Supreme Court consists of seven judges: the Chief Justice and six Justices who are appointed by the Governor to 6-year terms and remain in office if retained in a general election near the end of each...

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Career

Born in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Cantero graduated from Florida State University

Florida State University

The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...

 as an undergraduate and from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

's law school

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

 and a Fulbright Scholar. Prior to his appointment to the Florida Supreme Court, he was a shareholder in the Miami

Miami, Florida

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

 firm of Adorno & Yoss.

On July 10, 2002, Governor Jeb Bush

Jeb Bush

John Ellis "Jeb" Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the second son of former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush; the younger brother of former President George W...

 appointed Cantero to the Florida Supreme Court

Florida Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the State of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. The Supreme Court consists of seven judges: the Chief Justice and six Justices who are appointed by the Governor to 6-year terms and remain in office if retained in a general election near the end of each...

. Cantero had not previously served as a judge, although he had extensive experience as an appellate attorney.

During the Bush presidency he was mentioned as a potential Supreme Court nominee

Bush Supreme Court candidates

Speculation abounded over potential nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States by President George W. Bush since before his presidency....

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On April 11, 2008, Cantero announced he would resign from the Florida Supreme Court, due to his family's desire to return to Miami, their hometown. His last day on the court was September 6, 2008. He had announced his intention to thereafter join leading international law firm White & Case LLP as a partner in the Miami office and head of the Miami Appellate Practice group.

Family

His father is Raoul Garcia-Cantero y Parajon (born 1935) and his mother is Elisa Aleida Batista y Godinez (born 1933). He married Ana Maria Perdomo (born 1963) on June 17, 1983 and they have three children. He attended the Sisters of St. Joseph

Sisters of St. Joseph

The title Sisters of St. Joseph applies to several Roman Catholic religious congregations of women. The largest and oldest of these was founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France...

 run St. Theresa School

St. Theresa School

St. Theresa School is a private Catholic school located at 2701 Indian Mound Trail, Coral Gables, Florida. It is the parish school for the Church of the Little Flower.-History:...

 in Coral Gables, Florida and later graduated high School from the Marist Brothers

Marist Brothers

The Marist Brothers, or Little Brothers of Mary, are a Catholic religious order of brothers and affiliated lay people. The order was founded in France, at La Valla-en-Gier near Lyon in 1817 by Saint Marcellin Champagnat, a young French priest of the Society of Mary...

 run Christopher Columbus High School (Miami, Florida) in Miami. His maternal grandfather was former Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....

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External links

• Florida Supreme Court page on Raoul G. Cantero, III
• Fla. Justice Gets Backing for U.S. Supreme Court Seat
• The Miami Herald, April 12, 2008, "First Cuban Justice Says He Will Leave the Bench" by Marc Caputo, Page 1B