Clemente Ruiz Nazario (November 23, 1896 in San Germán, Puerto Rico – December 25, 1969), was the first Puerto Rican appointed as District Judge to the

United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico (in case citations, D.P.R.; es, Tribunal del Distrito de Puerto Rico) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The court is ...

.United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico-Clemente Ruiz Nazario
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Education and career

Ruiz Nazario served in 1921 as a Second Lieutenant in the

United States Army Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces. Since July 2020 ...

. Was president of the

Boys Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...

for the New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico region. Went to

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 ...

where he received his teacher certificate and his law degree from the

University of Puerto Rico School of Law The University of Puerto Rico School of Law is a law school in Puerto Rico. It is one of the professional graduate schools of University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus and the only law school in the University of Puerto Rico System. It ...

Federal judicial service

He was appointed by President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

, in 1952. Setting a precedent, the appointment of Ruiz Nazario to the federal district court in Puerto Rico marked the beginning of an uninterrupted practice of appointing Puerto Rican men and women to that Court. Nominated as the next-to-last fixed-term judge in the District of Puerto Rico, he was joined by a second judge as Puerto Rico's federal caseload increased, Judge Hiram Rafael Cancio who, after Ruiz Nazario's resignation in December 1966, was appointed as Puerto Rico's first Article III lifetime federal judge. He died on December 25, 1969.

Legacy

The main Clemente Ruiz Nazario United States Courthouse in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...

, adjacent to the Federico Degetau Federal Building is named after him.

References

*Guillermo A. Baralt, ''History of the Federal Court in Puerto Rico: 1899-1999'' (2004) (also published in Spanish as ''Historia del Tribunal Federal de Puerto Rico'') 1896 births 1969 deaths University of Puerto Rico alumni People from San Germán, Puerto Rico Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico Puerto Rican judges United States Article I federal judges appointed by Harry S. Truman 20th-century American judges United States Army reservists Hispanic and Latino American judges {{US-federal-judge-stub

Education and career

Federal judicial service

Legacy

See also

References