President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated U.S. District Judge Adalberto José Jordán to the federal appeals court in Atlanta.
Jordán, 49, was born in Havana, Cuba, and has served on the federal bench in Miami since 1999. If confirmed by the Senate, he would succeed Judge Susan Black, who has taken senior status.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears federal cases from Georgia, Alabama and Florida. It is allotted 12 judges, but now has 10 active judges with two vacancies. Obama has yet to fill the Georgia seat of Stanley Birch, who retired from the court.
“Judge Adalberto José Jordán will bring an unwavering commitment to fairness and judicial integrity to the federal bench,” Obama said in a statement. “His impressive legal career is a testament to the kind of thoughtful and diligent judge he will be on the Eleventh Circuit. I am honored to nominate him today.”
Jordán is an adjunct professor of law at University of Miami School of Law, where he has taught since 1990, and at Florida International University College of Law, where he has taught since 2007. He immigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of six.
He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Miami in 1984, and graduated summa cum laude from University of Miami School of Law in 1987. After law school, he served as a law clerk to the Judge Thomas A. Clark of the 11th Circuit from 1987 to 1988, and the following year served as a law clerk to the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
In 1989, Jordán joined the Miami law firm of Steel Hector & Davis LLP (now Squire Sanders & Dempsey) as a litigation associate, eventually specializing in appellate practice and becoming a partner in 1994, the White House said. Later that year, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the appellate division and handling criminal and civil appeals.
Jordán became appellate division chief in the office in 1998, and also served as special counsel to the U.S. Attorney for legal policy. Since being nominated by President Bill Clinton to the federal bench in 1999, Judge Jordán has presided over nearly 200 trials, the White House said. He also has sat as a visiting judge on the 11th Circuit.
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