NATION IN BRIEF : FLORIDA : Black Justice Named to Head High Court

Justice Leander Shaw was promoted to chief justice of Florida’s Supreme Court, effective July 1. He will be the first black to head any of the three branches of state government. The 59-year-old jurist, appointed to Florida’s highest court in 1983, sided with the majority last year when the court struck down a state law requiring parental consent for minors’ abortions. Anti-abortion groups have been campaigning for his defeat in November, when his name will appear on the ballot for merit retention--a yes-or-no question of whether a judge should retain office.