Antonio S. Negrón García (born December 31, 1940) is a Puerto Rican jurist. He served as a municipal

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

before being appointed to the

Supreme Court of Puerto Rico The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ( es, Tribunal Supremo de Puerto Rico) is the highest court of Puerto Rico, having judicial authority to interpret and decide questions of Puerto Rican law. The Court is analogous to one of the state supreme cou ...

. He served for 26 years, gaining a reputation as one of the court's most prolific

justices A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

Early life

Negrón García was born December 31, 1940 in

Río Piedras, Puerto Rico Río Piedras is a populous district of San Juan, and former town and municipality of Puerto Rico, which was merged with the municipality of San Juan in 1951. The district today is composed of various '' barrios'' (these are the primary legal div ...

. His father was

Luis Negrón Fernández Luis Felipe Negrón Fernández (April 29, 1910 - December 1, 1986) was a Puerto Rican jurist who served as an asssociate justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and later as the ninth chief justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico from 1971 ...

, who would eventually serve as Associate Justice and Chief Justice of the Court. He earned a B.A. from the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

in 1962, and earned his law degree from the same in 1964.

Law career

Upon being admitted to the bar that same year, Negrón García went to work as a legal advisor for the Puerto Rico Power and Water company. He served as a judge in a District Court from 1966 to 1969, at which point he was elevated to a Superior Court. From 1972 to 1974 he presided over the Governor's Judicial Appointment Advisory Committee, as well as serving as Executive Secretary of the Justice Reform Council of Puerto Rico.

Supreme Court

After Trías Monge's appointment to Chief Justice in 1974, there remained one vacancy in the Supreme Court. Governor

Rafael Hernández Colón Rafael Hernández Colón (October 24, 1936 – May 2, 2019) was a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1973 to 1977 and 1985 to 1993 for a total of three terms. An experienced politician, Hernández held the ...

had avoided filling the spot until Negrón García had fulfilled the Supreme Courts requirement for membership: ten years as a licensed

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

in Puerto Rico. At the time, he was the youngest person ever to be appointed to the Supreme Court.

Retirement

In 2000 Negrón García retired after 26 years as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He is currently a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

at the

Universidad Interamericana Universidad Interamericana (UNICA) is a university in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of t ...

. He writes occasional columns for

El Nuevo Día ''El Nuevo Día'' (English: ''The New Day'') is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1909 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and today it is a subsidiary of GFR Media. Its headquarters are in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. ...

, and he serves as an advisor to the Joint Commission on the Revision of the Civil Code of Puerto Rico in the matter of torts.

Sources

*La Justicia en sus Manos by Luis Rafael Rivera, 1940 births Living people Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico Puerto Rican lawyers People from Río Piedras, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican judges {{US-state-judge-stub