Benchslap Of The Day: Puerto Rico Not So Suave
"The district court’s ruling errs in so many respects that it is hard to know where to begin."
Judge Juan Pérez-Giménez (D.P.R.)
I’m often asked for advice by law students or young lawyers about good courts or judges to clerk for. My answers will depend, of course, on what the prospective clerk is looking for out of the experience. The best clerkship for a gunner with her sights set on clerking for the Supreme Court is not the same as the best clerkship for someone who wants to spend a fun and interesting year in a cool and different place.
If you fall into that second camp, clerking in the island paradise of Puerto Rico is worth considering. The District of Puerto Rico judges are Article III judges, in case you were wondering (plus Judge Juan R. Torruella, senior judge on the First Circuit, maintains chambers there). The weather is great, and even on your modest clerk’s salary (modest compared to the Biglaw starting salary, at least), you can get yourself a very nice oceanfront apartment in San Juan.
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But be sure to pick the right judge; the D.P.R. bench is a bit variable in quality. See, e.g., this epic First Circuit benchslap of Judge Juan Pérez-Giménez:
The district court’s ruling errs in so many respects that it is hard to know where to begin.
Ouch! That benchslap was so hard we heard it all the way here on the mainland. What did Judge Pérez-Giménez do to incur the First Circuit’s wrath — and get it to issue a writ of mandamus, an extraordinary form of relief that almost always amounts to a benchslap? Chris Geidner explains over at BuzzFeed:
Pérez-Giménez had ruled in favor of the ban in October 2014, but the 1st Circuit sent the case back to the trial court after the Supreme Court’s June 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges striking down marriage bans nationwide. The appeals court ordered Pérez-Giménez to “further consider” the matter “in light of Obergefell,” adding that the appeals court judges “agree with the parties … that the ban is unconstitutional.”
Nonetheless, in March, Pérez-Giménez upheld the ban for a second time, ruling that the Supreme Court’s ruling does not apply to a territory like Puerto Rico.
The appeals court disagreed strongly, stating, “In ruling that the ban is not unconstitutional because the applicable constitutional right does not apply in Puerto Rico, the district court both misconstrued that right and directly contradicted our mandate.”
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Translation: you had one job.
And this time around, the First Circuit is going to ensure that the job gets done. Forcing Judge Pérez-Giménez to bid adiós to this case, the court’s per curiam opinion orders that the case “be assigned randomly by the clerk to a different judge to enter judgment in favor of the Petitioners promptly.”
Congratulations to the petitioners on bringing marriage equality to Puerto Rico. Now if only the commonwealth can fix its financial problems….
Federal Appeals Court: Yes, Puerto Rico’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban Is Unconstitutional [BuzzFeed via Morning Docket]
Court Restores Marriage Equality to Puerto Rico, Issues Brutal Bench-Slap to Anti-Gay Judge [Slate]
Financial Volcano About to Erupt in Puerto Rico [Daily Business Review]
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