Former Judges
| Judge | Appointed by | Began active service |
Ended active service |
Ended senior status |
End reason |
| Hiram Rafael Cancio | Lyndon B. Johnson | 01967-06-12June 12, 1967 | 01974-01-31January 31, 1974 | – | resignation |
| Juan B. Fernandez-Badillo | Lyndon B. Johnson | 01967-10-12October 12, 1967 | 01972-06-30June 30, 1972 | 01989-10-16October 16, 1989 | death |
| Gilberto Gierbolini-Ortiz | Jimmy Carter | 01980-02-20February 20, 1980 | 01993-12-27December 27, 1993 | 02004-03-23March 23, 2004 | retirement |
| Hector Manuel Laffitte | Ronald Reagan | 01983-07-27July 27, 1983 | 02005-11-15November 15, 2005 | 02007-02-16February 16, 2007 | retirement |
| Hernan Gregorio Pesquera | Richard Nixon | 01972-10-17October 17, 1972 | 01982-09-08September 8, 1982 | – | death |
| Jose Victor Toledo | Richard Nixon | 01970-12-01December 1, 1970 | 01980-02-03February 3, 1980 | – | death |
| Juan R. Torruella | Gerald Ford | 01974-12-20December 20, 1974 | 01984-10-30October 30, 1984 | – | reappointment |
| Jaime Pieras Jr. | Ronald Reagan | 01982-07-15July 15, 1982 | 01993-08-01August 1, 1993 | 02011-06-11June 11, 2011 | death |
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.
Read more about this topic: United States District Court For The District Of Puerto Rico
Famous quotes containing the word judges:
“In England the judges should have independence to protect the people against the crown. Here the judges should not be independent of the people, but be appointed for not more than seven years. The people would always re-elect the good judges.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Men over forty are no judges of a book written in a new spirit.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)