Justice Major B. Harding

Former Justice Major B. Harding was the 74th Justice to serve on the Supreme Court. He served from 1991-2002. He was appointed by Governor Lawton Chiles on January 22, 1991. 

Justice Harding is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina.  He received his B.S. and LLB degrees from Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1957 and 1959, respectively. After joining the U. S. Army, he attended the United States Army Infantry School and the United States Army Judge Advocate General School. Justice Harding received a degree of Master of Laws in Judicial Process from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995. and an honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Stetson University in 1991 and from Florida Coastal School of Law in 1999.  While at Wake Forest, he was a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity, Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity, and Scabbard & Blade Honorary Military Fraternity. He was admitted to the North Carolina Bar in 1959, and to The Florida Bar in 1960.  From 1960-62 he served as assistant staff judge advocate at Fort Gordon, Georgia, where he received trial experience in general courts martial, legal assistance, and government contracts. From 1962-1963 he was the assistant county solicitor prosecuting in Duval County's Criminal Court of Record, and in1964 he entered private practice.

He began his tenure on the bench in Florida with his June 1968 appointment as a Duval County Juvenile Court judge.  In December 1970 he was appointed to the circuit bench in the Fourth Judicial Circuit. As a circuit judge, he was elected chief judge of the circuit in 1974 and again in 1975. In 1980, the Young Lawyers Section of the Jacksonville Bar nominated him for the Outstanding Circuit Judge award.

Justice Harding was active in civic affairs in Jacksonville. He has served as a board member for Daniel Memorial in Jacksonville (a psychiatric treatment center for youth) and was president of the Rotary Club of Riverside, Jacksonville. He was a founding member of the Chester Bedell Inn of Court in Jacksonville in 1985 and served as chair of the United States Constitution Bicentennial Commission of Jacksonville in 1987. In Jacksonville he was an elder and clerk of the Session at St. Johns Presbyterian Church.  The Jacksonville Area Legal Aid Association is in a building named The Major B. Harding Center for Justice in downtown Jacksonville.  The Major B. Harding American Inn of Court is in Stuart, Florida. 

Justice Harding served on the Supreme Court's Matrimonial Law Commission, the Gender Bias Study Commission, the Bench Bar Commission, and the Judicial Council.  In 1995-96 he was president of the Rotary Club of Tallahassee and is Past-President of the Tallahassee American Inn of Court. He chaired the Florida Court Education Council, served on the Supreme Court Committee on Law Related Education and was a member of the American Bar Association Bar Admission Committee. He also served as an ex-officio Board Member of the American Inns of Court and as Master Emeritus of the Chester Bedell and Tallahassee American Inns of Court. At the time of his appointment to the Supreme Court in 1991 he was Chair-elect of the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges and had served as dean of the Florida Judicial College since 1984.  Justice Harding was a member of the faculty of the judicial college throughout his years as a judge and until 2021. He served as Chief Justice from July 1, 1998, to June 30, 2000.

While a circuit judge, he was consistently rated at the top of the annual judicial polls of the Jacksonville Bar Association. In 1997 Justice Harding was the recipient of the Significant Sig Award by Sigma Chi Fraternity. In September 1998 he was awarded the Justice Harry Lee Anstead Professionalism Award by the Dade County Trial Lawyers Association. He received the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs Judicial Recognition Award and received the Jurist of the Year award from the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates for the year 2000.  In 2001 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the National Center for State Courts; the William A. Dugger Professional Integrity Award by the Capital Rotary Club; and the FLABOTA (American Board of Trial Advocates in Florida) Jurist of the Year Award.

He received the William Hoeveler Judicial Award at The Florida Bar Annual Meeting in 2002 and the Tradition of Excellence Award from the General Practice, Solo, and Small Firm Section of The Florida Bar in 2006. In 2005 Justice Harding received the Frederick Clifton Moore Award from the Rotary Club of Tallahassee.  In 2017 he received the Faith and Profession Award from the Tallahassee Christian College and Training Center.  In 2018 he received the Stan Tait Award from the Economic Club of Florida, and in 2020 he received the Richard W. Erwin Equal Justice Award from the Tallahassee Bar Association. 

He has been a member of the Board of Visitors for Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, N.C. and the Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida.   He has served as a trustee of Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pa. and as President and Chair of the Economic Club of Florida.

Justice Harding retired from the Florida Supreme Court in 2002 and began work with the firm of Ausley McMullen in Tallahassee. He retired from the firm in 2021.  He is a member of St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral where he served as Senior Warden.   He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Anglican Church of North America. He married Jane Lewis in 1958, has three children, eight grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.