Rubén Castillo (born August 12, 1954) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In 1994, Castillo was the first person of Latino descent to be named a judge in the Northern District of Illinois, and in 2013 the first to become Chief Judge.
Rubén Castillo
Illinois Northern District Court
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Born 1954 in Chicago, IL
FJC ID: 398
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 3/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 16/year
Illinois Northern District Court · 1994–2019
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 · 2012–2016
Vice chair · 1999–2010- Private practice, Chicago, Illinois1979–1984, 1991–1994
- Mexican American Legal Defense FundRegional counsel · 1988–1991
Northern District of IllinoisAssistant U.S. attorney · 1984–1988
Appointments
1994–2019 · Appointed by William J. Clinton (Democratic)Term ended: Retirement
Education
- Loyola University ChicagoB.A. · 1976