José A. Cabranes

José A. Cabranes
U.S. Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office August 9, 1994
Nominated by	Bill Clinton
Personal details
Born	(1940-12-22) December 22, 1940 Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Alma mater	Columbia University Yale University Cambridge University

José Alberto Cabranes (born December 22, 1940), is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Formerly an educator, he is the first Puerto Rican appointed to a federal judgeship in the continental United States and the second Puerto Rican to be appointed as a judge of a United States Court of Appeals.

Early years

Cabranes was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico into a family of educators since both of his parents were school teachers. His father was also one of the first professionally trained social workers in Puerto Rico. In 1946, his family moved to New York City and settled in the South Bronx. Cabranes received his primary and secondary education in the city's public school system.

In 1957, Cabranes graduated from Flushing High School and enrolled at Columbia University. There he earned his Bachelors of Arts Degree in 1961. He continued his education at Yale University, where in 1965 he earned his degree in law. Cabranes was awarded a Kellett Research Fellowship from Columbia College and the Humanitarian Trust Studentship in Public International Law from the Faculty Board of Law of the University of Cambridge to study international law at Queens' College, University of Cambridge, in England. In 1967, he earned his M.Litt (Masters of Letters) Degree in International Law.

Positions held

Cabranes returned to New York City to practice law. He became an associate professor of law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark in 1971, and in 1973 he was appointed to represent Puerto Rico in Washington, D.C. as head of the Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (currently known as the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration) and Special Counsel to the Governor of Puerto Rico. In 1975, Cabranes became the General Counsel of Yale University and continued to teach international law in that institution. During this period, Cabranes authored Citizenship and the American Empire (Yale, 1979), a legislative history of the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917, which conferred United States citizenship on the people of Puerto Rico.

As a private citizen, he was a founding member of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. Cabranes also served as Chair of the Board of Directors of ASPIRA, an organization that helps inner-city Hispanic youth.

Federal judgeship

On the recommendation of Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff, President Jimmy Carter nominated Cabranes on November 6 1979 to the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. He was unanimously confirmed on December 10 1979, thus becoming the first Puerto Rican to hold this position in the continental United States. On May 24 1994, President Bill Clinton nominated him to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, based in New York. His nomination was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on August 9 1994. Cabranes, thus becoming the second Puerto Rican named to a U.S. Court of Appeals, after Juan R. Torruella who had been appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1984 to the First Circuit. Cabranes also became the first Hispanic judge to serve on the Second Circuit.

Former Clinton administration adviser George Stephanopoulos wrote in his autobiography All Too Human: A Political Education that in 1993 Cabranes was considered by President Clinton for appointment to the seat on the Supreme Court of the United States that ultimately went to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Cabranes would have been the first Latino Supreme Court justice. Newspaper accounts in 1994 reported that he was considered also in 1994 for the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Harry Blackmun, which ultimately was filled by Stephen Breyer.

Cabranes wrote an opinion dissenting from his court’s 7-6 denial of en banc rehearing in Ricci v. DeStefano, a prominent case in Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Awards and recognitions

Among the many awards and recognitions bestowed upon Cabranes are the following:

• Gavel Award (Certificate of Merit) of the American Bar Association
• John Jay Award from Columbia University
• Connecticut Bar Association Henry J. Naruk Judiciary Award
• Federal Bar Council's Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence

Family

Cabranes is married to Kate Stith-Cabranes, the Lafayette S. Foster Professor of Law at Yale Law School and author of Fear of Judging; Sentencing Guidelines in the Federal Courts (University of Chicago, 1998). Cabranes also authored Citizenship and the American Empire (Yale, 1979). His sister-in-law,Laura Denvir Stith, is the former Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court and currently sits on that court as a judge.

See also

• Bill Clinton Supreme Court candidates

• List of famous Puerto Ricans

External links

• José A. Cabranes at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.