Miriam Naveira Merly

Miriam Naveira de Merly (July 28, 1934 – April 15, 2018) was a Puerto Rican jurist who served in the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico from 1985 to 2004. Naveira was the first woman to serve on the court as well as the first female chief justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico (2003–2004). She was also the first female to serve as the Solicitor General of Puerto Rico (1973-1976).

Biography Naveira de Merly was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, in 1934. She obtained her bachelor's degree in chemistry from the College of Mount Saint Vincent and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law at UPR Río Piedras.

Naveira was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1985 by Governor Rafael Hernández Colón, becoming the first woman on that court. During her tenure, Naveira was known as a pragmatic and moderate justice.

After the retirement of Chief Justice José Andreu García in 2003, Governor Sila Calderón elevated Justice Naveira to the post of Chief Justice. However, her tenure lasted only seven months since the Constitution of Puerto Rico states that Supreme Court Justices must retire at the age of seventy. Chief Justice Miriam Naveira retired in July 2004. She was also the first Hispanic woman to serve as branch chief of the EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) and later the first Hispanic woman to become deputy director of NERL's Environmental Sciences Division.

Miriam Naveira died on April 15, 2018, at the age of 83. She was buried at the Puerto Rico Memorial Cemetery in Carolina, Puerto Rico.