Juan Rafael Torruella del Valle Sr. (June 7, 1933 – October 26, 2020) was a Puerto Rican jurist. He served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit from 1984 until his death, and as chief judge of that court from 1994 to 2001. He was the first Hispanic to serve on the First Circuit, which includes Puerto Rico.
Juan R. Torruella
First Circuit Court of Appeals
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico; U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
Born 1933 in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Died 2020 in San Juan, Puerto Rico
FJC ID: 2400
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 46/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 1,124/year
Puerto Rico District Court · 1974–1984First Circuit Court of Appeals · 1984–2020
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- Hispanic
Prior employment
- Judicial Conference of the United StatesMember · 1994–2001
- Private practice, San Juan, Puerto Rico1959–1974
Appointments
U.S. Court of Appeals for the First CircuitChief Judge1984–2020 · Appointed by Ronald Reagan (Republican)Term ended: Death
1974–1984 · Appointed by Gerald Ford (Republican)Term ended: Appointment to Another Judicial Position
Education
LL.M. · 1984- University of Puerto Rico School of Public AdministrationM.P.A. · 1984
J.D. · 1957- University of Pennsylvania, Wharton SchoolB.S. · 1954