United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico

United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico (D.P.R.)
Appeals to	First Circuit
Established	September 12, 1966
Judges assigned	7
Chief judge	Aida Delgado-Colon
Official site

Clemente Ruiz Nazario Courthouse, in Hato Rey, PR.

The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico (in case citations, D.P.R.; Spanish: Tribunal del Distrito de Puerto Rico) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The court is based in San Juan. The main building is the Clemente Ruiz Nazario U.S. Courthouse located in the Hato Rey district of San Juan. The magistrate judges are located in the adjacent Federico Degetau Federal Building, and several senior district judges hold court at the Jose V. Toledo Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Old San Juan. The old courthouse also houses the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Most appeals from this court are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which is headquartered in Boston but hears appeals at the Old San Juan courthouse for two sessions each year. Patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act are appealed to the Federal Circuit.

The current United States Attorney is Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez.^[1]

Scope and relevance

The United States first established a federal court in Puerto Rico under the Foraker Act of 1900. This court was a territorial court, operating within what the Supreme Court would soon define in the Insular Cases as an unincorporated territory of the United States. As such, the court was established under Article IV rather than Article III of the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States discussed the nature of the court in Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 298 (1922). Because the court was a territorial court rather than a full-fledged District Courts, its judges did not enjoy Article III protections such as life tenure.

The District Court in Puerto Rico continued to be an Article IV court even after Puerto Rico attained its commonwealth status. However, in 1966, the U.S. Congress conferred life tenure on the federal judges of Puerto Rico, transforming the court into a full-fledged Article III district court with the same status as the other United States District Courts throughout the country. ^[2] The congressional report on the bill making this change described the change of status as being "appropriate in light of the court's caseload and the conferral of Commonwealth status on Puerto Rico," and also explained:

There is no reason why the U.S. District Judges for the District of Puerto Rico should not be placed in a position of parity as to tenure with all other Federal Judges throughout our judicial system. Moreover, federal litigants in Puerto Rico should not be denied the benefit of judges made independent by life tenure from the pressures of those who might influence his chances of reappointment, which benefits the Constitution guarantees to the litigants in all other Federal Courts. These judges in Puerto Rico have and will have the exacting same heavy responsibilities as all other Federal district judges and, therefore, they should have the same independence, security, and retirement benefits to which all other Federal district judges are entitled.

See 1966 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2786-90; see also Examining Bd. of Engineers Architects and Surveyors v. Flores de Otero, 426 U.S. at 595 n.26 (“The reason given for this [law] was that the Federal District Court in Puerto Rico ‘is in its jurisdiction, powers, and responsibilities the same as the U.S. district courts in the (several) states’.”). This important change in the federal judicialstructure of the island was implemented not as a request of the Commonwealth government, but rather at the repeated request of the Judicial Conference of the United States. See Senate Report No. 1504, 1966 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2786-90.

No similar law has been passed for the three insular territories that still have Article IV status, though there have been calls from time to time that these judges also deserve the protection of life tenure.

Current judges

There are seven authorized active judgeships in the Puerto Rico District Court in addition to three senior judges who may elect to supervise reduced caseloads.

#	Title	Judge	Duty station	Born	Term of service			Appointed by
					Active	Chief	Senior
16	Chief Judge	Aida Delgado-Colon	San Juan	1955	2006–present	2011–present	—	G.W. Bush
8	District Judge	Carmen Consuelo Cerezo	San Juan	1940	1980–present	1993–1999	—	Carter
12	District Judge	José A. Fusté	San Juan	1943	1985–present	2004–2011	—	Reagan
15	District Judge	Jay A. Garcia-Gregory	San Juan	1944	2000–present	—	—	Clinton
17	District Judge	Gustavo Gelpí	San Juan	1965	2006–present	—	—	G.W. Bush
18	District Judge	Francisco Besosa	San Juan	1949	2006–present	—	—	G.W. Bush
19	District Judge	Pedro A. Delgado Hernández	San Juan	1956	2014–present	—	—	Obama
6	Senior Judge	Juan Manuel Perez-Gimenez	San Juan	1941	1979–2006	1984–1991	2006–present	Carter
13	Senior Judge	Salvador E. Casellas	San Juan	1935	1994–2005	—	2005–present	Reagan
14	Senior Judge	Daniel R. Dominguez	San Juan	1945	1994–2011	—	2011–present	Reagan

Former judges

#	Judge	State	Born/Died	Active service	Chief Judge	Senior status	Appointed by	Reason for termination
1	Cancio, Hiram RafaelHiram Rafael Cancio	PR	1920–2008	1967–1974	1967–1974	—	Johnson, L.L. Johnson	resignation
2	Fernandez-Badillo, Juan B.Juan B. Fernandez-Badillo	PR	1912–1989	1967–1972	—	1972–1989	Johnson, L.L. Johnson	death
3	Toledo, Jose VictorJose Victor Toledo	PR	1931–1980	1970–1980	1974–1980	—	Nixon, Nixon	death
4	Pesquera, Hernan GregorioHernan Gregorio Pesquera	PR	1924–1982	1972–1982	1980–1982	—	Nixon, Nixon	death
5	Torruella, Juan R.Juan R. Torruella	PR	1933–present	1974–1984	1982–1984	—	Ford, Ford	reappointment
7	Gierbolini-Ortiz, GilbertoGilberto Gierbolini-Ortiz	PR	1926–2009	1980–1993	1991–1993	1993–2004	Carter, Carter	retirement
9	Pieras Jr., JaimeJaime Pieras Jr.	PR	1924–2011	1982–1993	—	1993–2011	Reagan, Reagan	death
10	Acosta, Raymond L.Raymond L. Acosta	PR	1925–2014	1982–1994	—	1994–2014	Reagan, Reagan	death
11	Laffitte, Hector ManuelHector Manuel Laffitte	PR	1934–present	1983–2005	1999–2004	2005–2007	Reagan, Reagan	retirement

Succession of seats

Seat 1 Seat established on September 12, 1966 by 80 Stat. 764 Cancio 1967–1974 Torruella 1974–1984 Fuste 1985–present

Seat 2 Seat established on September 12, 1966 by 80 Stat. 764 Fernandez-Badillo 1967–1972 Pesquera 1972–1982 Laffitte 1983–2005 Gelpi, Jr. 2006–present

Seat 3 Seat established on June 2, 1970 by 84 Stat. 294 Toledo 1970–1980 Acosta 1982–1994 Garcia-Gregory 2000–present

Seat 4 Seat established on October 20, 1978 by 92 Stat. 1629 Perez-Gimenez 1979–2006 Besosa 2006–present

Seat 5 Seat established on October 20, 1978 by 92 Stat. 1629 Gierbolini-Ortiz 1980–1993 Dominguez 1994–2011 Delgado Hernández 2014–present

Seat 6 Seat established on October 20, 1978 by 92 Stat. 1629 Cerezo 1980–present

Seat 7 Seat established on October 20, 1978 by 92 Stat. 1629 Pieras, Jr. 1982–1993 Cassellas 1994–2005 Delgado-Colon 2006–present

Article I judges

Judges who served on the Court from 1900 to 1966, before it became an Article III court, were:

• William H. Holt (1900–1904)
• Charles F. McKenna (1904–1906)
• Bernard Shandon Rodey (1906–1910)
• John J. Jenkins (1910–1911)
• Paul Charlton (1911–1913)
• Peter J. Hamilton (1913–1921)
• Arthur F. Odlin (1921–1925)
• Ira K. Wells (1925–1933)
• Robert A. Cooper (1933–1947)
• David Chávez (1947–1950)
• Thomas H. Roberts (1950–1952)
• Clemente Ruiz-Nazario (1952–1966)
• Hiram Rafael Cáncio (1965–1966)

During this period, judges for the District of Puerto Rico were appointed by the president for 4-year terms until 1938, and thereafter for 8-year terms. The court statutorily comprised a single judge until 1961, when a second judgeship was authorized by Congress, although the position was not actually filled until 1965. Until the 1950s, when the District Court judgeship was vacant, when the judge was away from Puerto Rico, or when the court's docket became overly backlogged, sitting judges of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico were designated to act as judges of the federal court.

Judge Ruiz-Nazario, appointed by President Harry Truman in 1952, was the first Puerto Rican to serve as a judge of Puerto Rico's federal court.

See also

• Courts of the United States
• List of United States federal courthouses in Puerto Rico
• United States District Court
• Federal tribunals in the United States

References

1. "Office of the United States Attorneys". Executive Office for United States Attorneys. United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
2. Public Law 89-571, 80 Stat. 764.

• CONSEJO DE SALUD PLAYA DE PONCE v JOHNNY RULLAN, SECRETARY OF HEALTH OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO (PDF), The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, retrieved 2009-12-31
• CONSEJO DE SALUD PLAYA DE PONCE v. RULLAN. 586 F.Supp.2d 22 (2008). CONSEJO DE SALUD PLAYA DE PONCE, et al., Plaintiffs v. Johnny RULLAN, Secretary of Health of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Defendant. Civil Nos. 06-1260(GAG), 06-1524(GAG). United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico. October 10, 2008. As Corrected November 10, 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
• Opinion and Order: Consejo de Salud de la Playa de Ponce vs. Johnny Rullan, Secretary of Health of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Gustavo A. Gelpi. USDC, D of Puerto Rico. San Juan, PR. Civil Numbers 06-1260 (GAG) and 06-1524 (GAG) (Consolidated). 10 November 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
• Guillermo A. Baralt, History of the Federal Court in Puerto Rico: 1899–1999 (2004) (Translated into English by Janis Palma, also published in Spanish as Historia del Tribunal Federal de Puerto Rico)

External links

• Official Site
• The Exclusion of Non-English-Speaking Jurors: Remedying a Century of Denial of the Sixth Amendment in the Federal Courts of Puerto Rico. Jasmine B. Gonzales Rose. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Vol. 46. (2011) Pages 497-549.