THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

              PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES JUDGE JOSE CABRANES 
                TO SERVE ON THE FEDERAL APPELLATE BENCH

The President today nominated Judge Jose A. Cabranes to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

"Judge Cabranes has an outstanding record of achievement in the legal profession, in academia, and in public service," the President said today. "I am confident that he will continue to serve with excellence and distinction on the appellate bench."

Jose Alberto Cabranes, 53, is serving in his fifteenth year on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, sitting in New Haven.

Born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in 1940, Mr. Cabranes moved to the South Bronx with the family at the age of five. After attending New York City public schools, he went on to graduate from Columbia College in 1961, Yale Law School in 1965, and the University of Cambridge in England in 1967.

Upon completion of his graduate work, he practiced law for four years with Casey, Lane & Mittendorf in New York City. He later became a professor of law at Rutgers University, where he taught international law, administrative law, and conflicts of law. From 1973 to 1975, on leave from Rutgers, Mr. Cabranes served as Special Counsel to the Governor of Puerto Rico and as head of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico's office in Washington, D.C. In 1975, he was named General Counsel to Yale University, and in 1976, he became a Lecturer at the Yale University Law School.

In 1979, he was appointed by President Carter to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and became Chief Judge in 1992.

Judge Cabranes has played an active role in the legal community. In 1988, he was one of five federal judges appointed to the 15-member Federal Courts Study Committee created by Congress to address the problems of the federal judiciary. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the American Bar Foundation. He is also the author of a book entitled Citizenship and the American Empire (1979) in addition to numerous articles in legal journals.

Judge Cabranes has also been active in community affairs. Before his appointment to the bench, he served as Chair of the Boards of Directors of Aspira of New York, Inc., an educational organization that helps inner-city Hispanic youth prepare for college, and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, of which he was a founding member. He also serves as a trustee of Yale University and of the Twentieth Century Fund in New York City.

He is the recipient of many awards and honorary degrees, among them a Life Achievement Award from the National Puerto Rican Coalition, the John Jay Award of Columbia University for "personifying the ideals of American democracy and representing the very best of the federal judiciary," and the Connecticut Bar Association's highest award, given to the Connecticut judge who "epitomizes long-term, dedicated and conscientious service to the community in a judicial role."

Judge Cabranes is married to Kate Stith, a professor of law at the Yale Law School; he has four children.

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