José A. Cabranes, U.S. Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit, Portrait Dedication ceremony at YLS

I'll rise. Oye, oye, oye, the judges of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut Sitting in Ceremonial Session, the Honorable Elvin W. Thompson, Chief Judge, presiding. All persons have in business before this session of United States District Court for the District of Connecticut Drawn Year. Give your attention and you shall be heard. God save the United States of America and this Honorable Court. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This afternoon we convene a ceremonial session of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut on the occasion of the unveiling of a portrait of Judge Jose A. Cabranas. Judge Cabranas was a judge of this Court from December 1979 to August 1994 when he was appointed a United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit. He is a former Chief Judge of this Court. It is my pleasure to welcome you all on this wonderful occasion on behalf of my colleagues and I would like to introduce my colleagues who are present. To my far right is District Judge Vanessa El Bryan and then District Judges, Stefan R. Underhill and Robert N. Chotney and then Senior District Judge Warren W. Egenton. To my immediate left is Senior District Judge Dominic J. Squatrito and then District Judges, Christopher F. Crony and Mark R. Crabbits. We are pleased to welcome today a number of present and past public officials. We welcome the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, David B. Fine. We also welcome the former Attorney General of the United States, Judge Michael B. New Casey and the former Associate Attorney General of the United States as well as former United States Attorney for Connecticut, Kevin J. O'Connor and former United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Stanley A. Torney. Other judicial officers of the District of Connecticut are with us today. Retired United States District Judge Alan H. Nevis. United States Magistrate Judges, Joan G. Margolis, Donna F. Martinez and Holly B. Bitt Simmons. Some of the United States Bankruptcy Court, Chief Judge Lorraine M. Wile, Judge Albert S. Debrowski and Judge Alan H. W. Schiff. In addition, we are pleased to note the presence of Senior Judge Tucker-Elmawson of the Western District of Louisiana who regularly sits as a visiting judge in this district. We welcome also from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Judge John M. Walker Jr., Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr., Judge Reena Rajee, Judge Dembra A. Livingston, and Judge Raymond J. Loye Jr. Two judges of that court, Judge John O'Neumann and Judge Ralph K. Winter will speak during our program. In addition, we welcome Senior Judge Edward R. Corman of the Eastern District of New York. We also welcome from the Connecticut Appellate Court, Judge Carmen E. Espinoza, from the Connecticut Superior Court, Judge Antonio C. Robina, from the New York State Supreme Court, Justice Francois A. Rivera, and from the New York State Appellate Division First Department, Judge Eugene L. Nidelli. We welcome to the President of Yale University, Richard C. Levin. Also, we welcome the former President of the Hispanic National Bar Association and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, Carlos A. Ortiz. Mr. Ortiz is the General Counsel of Goya Foods Inc. Finally, I wish to extend a very warm welcome to the judges' family members who are present here today. We have with us Judge Cabranas' wife, Professor Kate Stiff Cabranas, his daughter Jennifer C. Braceris and her husband Roberto Braceris, his son Alejo Cabranas, his aunt Ida Plyphoris and her daughter Katina Plyphoris and his cousins Jaime and Mary Lopez, especially warm welcome to you. Our Master of Ceremonies today is one of Judge Cabranas' former law clerks, Jesse Furman. He has been the leader of the Law Clerks Project to commission the Portrait of Judge Cabranas. Mr. Furman is a career federal prosecutor who clerked also for Judge Michael McKasey in the Southern District of New York and for Justice David Souter. Since his clerkship on the Supreme Court, he has been an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York with notable experience in terrorism prosecutions. He served for two years as Counselor to the Attorney General of the United States and is now the Deputy Chief of the Appeals Unit in the Southern District, Mr. Furman. Thank you, Judge Thompson, for that overly kind introduction and may it please the court. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you here on behalf of all of Judge Cabranas' law clerks. We organized this event and commissioned the Portrait that you will see shortly as a tribute to Judge Cabranas' 30 remarkable years on the bench, although just for the record, it's 31 and a half or so and counting. That said, I can't think of any more fitting tribute to the Judge's service than your presence here today and I thank you for that. I want to make one thing clear at the outset. In commissioning this Portrait, the Judge's law clerks do not mean to suggest that he is in any way shall we say on the Wayne. Far from it, as anyone who knows the Judge or has seen him recently knows, he's as active as he ever was and I expect he will remain that way. We simply decided that it was an appropriate time to express our appreciation, our affection, and our admiration for a tremendous public servant, a mentor, and a friend, and speaking personally, Judge, I can tell you that I feel truly blessed to count you as one of my friends and my mentor and put simply without you, I would not be half the lawyer or the person I am today. So the point of that is you should not consider this or view it as any sort of retirement party instead and perhaps mindful of the fact that Judge Cabronna knows more Yiddish than my grandparents ever did. You should look at it as a bar mitzvah. So, Mausletov Judge, before I turn the podium over to the first of our speakers, I just want to acknowledge and say thank you on behalf of all the law clerks to a number of people without whom today literally would not have happened. First, thank you to Judge Thompson and to the rest of the court for hosting us and having us here today. Thank you as well to Robin Tabura, the clerk of the district court, and not incidentally, the judges that is Judge Cabronna's first courtroom deputy. She and her staff, especially Maria Carpenter and Wanda Hawkins, have worked tirelessly and I emphasized tirelessly in recent weeks, especially to make this event happen. Thank you as well to our hosts, that is the Yale Law School, and specifically to Dean Robert Post, Mike Thompson, Mark LaFontaine, Georgian Rodgers, and Jim Barnett. I want to thank also Janet Hanson, Judge Cabronna's ever competent, and as everyone who has encountered her knows, ever patient secretary. And thanks as well to Daniel Mark Duffy, about whom I will have some words later, but whose artistic talents are what bring us here today, and artistic talents you will see shortly. With that, let me turn the podium over to the first of our speakers and to our hosts, to my friend, the Dean, and Saul and Lillian Goldman, Professor of Law here at Yale Law School, Robert Post. It's my privilege today to welcome you all to this Parmitsfa, that honors a distinguished alumnus, a scholar, a mentor, and a judge, Jose Cabronna's. I want to welcome especially his family members, and in particular, his wife, Kate Stiff, who is, as you may know, the Lafayette's foster professor of law here at the Yale Law School, and one of our most distinguished faculty members we are, extremely pleased to host this event in your honor, Judge Cabronna's. This large and varied gathering is a testament, I think, to Judge Cabronna's influence across many different spheres of life. We are honored today to be with Chief Judge Alvin Thompson, himself, a Yale Law School alumnus of the class of 1978, and with the other members of the district court for the district of Connecticut, who are gathered here today in ceremonial session. We welcome Judge Cabronna's colleagues from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and from the many other state and federal courts that are represented here today. We also wish to welcome current and former members of the Yale Law faculty, the Yale administration and the Yale Corporation, and attorneys from Connecticut and the New York Bar, and the many, many others who are here today in this auditorium who have been touched in myriad ways by Judge Cabronna's in the course of his long and magnificent career. I am also extremely pleased to welcome so many of Judge Cabronna's current and former law clerks. It is a fitting tribute indeed that the portrait we unveiled today was commissioned by the generations of lawyers that he inspired. Here today's ceremony, the lovely portrait that was painted by Daniel Mark Duffy, will hang in our alumni reading room. Those of you who are familiar with the Yale Law School will know that this is perhaps the most hallowed space in the Yale Law School. It is reserved for our most admired and accomplished alumni. It includes four justices of the Supreme Court, three presidents, a number of deans, and many distinguished members of the Academy and Bar. These portraits watch over some of the most important events that happen at this school. We literally look up to the men and women who are on those walls. And as Lincoln might have said, it is altogether fitting and proper today that Judge Cabronna's will be elevated to join them. Of course, those of us who know Judge Cabronna's have been looking up to him for a very long time. It was almost five decades ago that he came into this building as a first-year law student. At that point in his life, he had already completed a remarkable journey. He was born in Mayigrass Puerto Rico. His mother was a grammar school teacher and editor and later a civic activist for Puerto Ricans on the mainland. His father was also a teacher and later the chief probation officer for the United States District Court in Puerto Rico and the director of the Puerto Ricans government office in New York. In those early years, Judge Cabronna's parents forged the commitments that have guided Judge Cabronna's life ever since, to education and to scholarship, to family and community, to public service, and to justice. The Cabronna's family moved to the South Bronx when Jose was five years old. He spoke no English, but he excelled in schools graduating from the public schools of New York City and then Columbia College, the Yale Law School, and Cambridge, where he earned a degree in international law. He practiced law in New York and earned a faculty appointment at Rutgers University. Along the way, he took time off to teach history at the Coléjo San Ignacio in Puerto Rico to co-found the Puerto Rican legal defense and education fund and to serve as chairman of the Board of Espira of New York, an organization devoted to helping inner city Hispanic youth prepare for college. He later served as the special counsel to the governor of Puerto Rico and head of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico's office in Washington, D.C. He has been a mentor to countless young people who share his heritage. One former research assistant, said of Judge Cabronna's, Jose helped us to integrate the two parts of our identity to be comfortable in our skin. He has rightly been called a hero of the Hispanic community. In 1975, Judge Cabronna's returned to New Haven when Yale President Kingman Brewster tapped him to become the very first general counsel of Yale University. And that was the beginning of a career in service to his alma mater that has included more than a decade as a trustee of the Yale Corporation. Four years after that, another president came calling. Jimmy Carter named Judge Cabronna's to a seat on the district court, making him the first Puerto Rican to serve as a federal judge on the mainland. One New York Times article characterized his tenure this way, I'm quoting now. Prosecutors and defense lawyers alike describe him as intelligent and as fair. They also say that the judge, known to talk to Hispanic plaintiffs and defendants in Spanish, rules with compassion. After 15 years on the court, including two as the chief judge, President Clinton elevated Judge Cabronna's to the second circuit. At the confirmation hearing for his new appointment, he earned praise from all sides of the political spectrum. Senator Orrin Hatch called him one of the premier judges in the country. Senator Joe Lieberman called him an extraordinary human being. And Senator Chris Dodd said he defies traditional, superficial ideological labeling. Asked if the nominee was a liberal or a conservative, Senator Dodd said, I'd answer that by saying, Jose Cabronna's is a judge. The spirit of that judicial independence and care has defined Judge Cabronna's 17 years on the second circuit. He has been called a judge's judge and he has been lauded for his scholarly excellence. He has authored opinions on virtually every area of law and has made particular contributions in international law, criminal procedure, and sentencing, a subject that he has also addressed in his significant academic publications. As we dedicate this portrait today, we pay tribute to Judge Cabronna's lifelong devotion to the rule of law. His law school contemporary and friend, former Attorney General Michael Mukhazy, put his finger on Judge Cabronna's unique role in our judiciary when he said, and I'm quoting, he's not Dr. Nair, he's somebody who applies the law as it is written. We at the Yale Law School welcome this portrait of Judge Cabronna's today, not merely because of his outstanding achievements on the bench. We instead and also hold him up as a role model to our students because of his character and his integrity, because of his strength of mind and judgment, and because he has used these virtues to craft a shining example of a life well lived in the law. As my predecessor Dean Harold co-put it, not for a second has Judge Cabronna's forgotten where he came from or what his life's success has meant. Along the way he has inspired the intense affection of generations of his law clerks, including many from this law school. I know of few judges who are loved so well by those who have reason to know them best. So now when this portrait assumes its rightful place on our walls, generations of students to come will look up to Judge Cabronna's, and they will be inspired to learn the story of his life, and it is in my hope that in this way his influence will extend for a long time to come. Thank you Robert. Our next speaker is also from Yale. Dorothy Robinson is the vice president and general counsel of Yale University, a position that she has held since 1986. She also shares something in common with all of us, that is all of the judge's law clerks, the judge hired her. In this case, as assistant general counsel in 1978, please welcome Dorothy Robinson. Thank you very much, Jessie. In that afternoon, Judge Cabronna's family members, friends, and distinguished guests. It is a very great honor for me to be here to celebrate Judge Cabronna's by the unveiling of his portrait and to have been asked to speak at this occasion. It brings back distinctive memories as I well recall being in this room in December 1979 and the judge then leaving his service as Yale University's first general counsel was sworn in as district court judge. I'm here to offer a few words about the judge's years as general counsel at Yale, and later his service as a trustee or what we call a fellow of the Yale Corporation. I was hired by Judge Cabronna as a young attorney in those early years as was my colleague Linda Lorimer, Vice President and Secretary of the University. I know that I will speak for both of us when I characterize Judge Cabronna as simply an extraordinary teacher and mentor. One whose influence on both of us was absolutely formative in our own careers and played no small part in our rising to the challenges of serving Yale University as vice presidents under President Rick Levin. We both are enormously grateful for that time of learning with someone so immensely talented, so keenly observant, and so willing to share with us insights that would remain useful and even gather strength through the decades, and we find ourselves using his phrases still. Judge Cabronna's created and shaped the position of general counsel at Yale from the time of his arrival in 1975 when he was appointed Yale's leadership team by President Kingman Brewster as the legal advisor, a title he fashioned after the position of the same title at the State Department. He was one of that bold first generation of general councils at universities across the country who started the work of organizing how their institutions each with its own character and style would respond to the growing demands of expanded regulation and multiplying sources of liability without compromising the essential values and identity of an academic institution. He also performed the important work of government relations for Yale, maintaining a network of contacts to ensure appropriate communication on topics of institutional concern to national policy makers. As I thought about how I might capture for you in words, a portrait of our honoree in those pioneering days of general councilhood, I read through some old files, and I noticed a memorandum that Judge Cabronna's wrote in 1979 to President A. Bartlett-Jimati advising the President on qualities to look for in his successor as Yale's general council. There is no way that I can offer a richer description of Judge Cabronna's himself than to read you a portion of that memorandum with the author's permission. He wrote and I quote, I believe it is of the utmost importance that the position of general council be filled by a practicing lawyer. The person's experience should not, however, be limited solely to private practice. He or she ought to have had a good deal of vocational and avocational experience with the world of public policy, that is, government and politics. Experience in the not-for-profit sector, including education, may be valuable, but it is not essential. It is far more important that he or she be flexible and creative in the handling of people and bureaucracies and be able to understand some of the irrationalities of the political processes. I say who has a more natural instinct for the latter than Judge Cabronna's? The memo continues, quote, I believe the person in question ought to have a degree from Yale College or the law school. It is important that the general council have some sense for the law and sociology of the place and not be at the mercy of those who do not have some command of those matters. My comment, the judge was such a master and guru of this law and sociology that he made it possible for your speaker to become a successor even while evading the requirement of a Yale College or a Yale Law degree. Continuing on, Judge Cabronna's wrote, quote, you should not be searching for an elder statesman, though, of course, the right person might well be a more senior attorney and might indeed be wise. The key thing is that the general council be fully capable of doing any of the work undertaken by his three subordinates and that he or she actually toil with his subordinates in the completion of that work. I would bet that all those here who have worked for Judge Cabronna's will attest that he always worked with us dug into our memos and invariably through his relentless markups caused every piece of work to be better. He continued, quote, law teaching experience may be useful and may suggest that the candidate will be at home in this environment, but this factor should be given little or no weight if the candidate is not an experienced practitioner of the law. I can think of no more dubious model than that of a law teacher, tenured or not, who has not had substantial experience as a mundane practicing lawyer in the role of general council. After all, this position was about legal advice and representation and he concluded, quote, finally, I recommend that the general council have a sense of humor. He or she should be amused by the eccentricities and creative disorganization of our kind of institution and have a fondness for them. I dare say that this sentence captures perfectly Yale's first general council. Some nine years after leaving Yale to join the judiciary, Judge Cabronna's again was called to serve as a Yale. He was appointed by Yale President Ben Oschmitt in 1987 to serve as a Yale trustee otherwise known as a fellow of the corporation and he continued as a fellow for 12 years. He has served on a great many other non-profit boards as Dean Post has alluded and I know it must have been that other service that led to his commentary both in speeches and publications on how boards and trustees can do better in fulfilling the roles expected of them by exercising their proper governance roles with greater diligence, greater activism, and greater skepticism. He has done a great service to boards everywhere by calling this out, however painful the message may be to some. For all of these qualities, for all he has done for his institution, Yale University, and his Yale family of which I am proud to be a member. I will use Judge Cabronna's own words, his own phrase, he is indeed a great American. Thank you, Dorothy. Glad I didn't use the great American line myself. Our next speaker is Felix Lopez. Felix is a graduate of this law school who currently serves as director of legal services at the gay men's health crisis. For present purposes, he is better identified as a former student of Judge Cabronna's and as Judge Cabronna's research assistant with someone else we might hear a word about and even from. On the Judge's book, 1979 book, Citizenship and the American Empire, please welcome Felix Lopez. Thank you and good afternoon. Since Mr. Bar Mitzvah, I'm looking forward to the Kishka. It's a Puerto Rican food, actually, it's a Puerto Rican delicacy. I was the Judge's assistant many, many years ago, research assistant many years ago, along with someone else whom you will, of course, recognize, and we have a note from her that I'd like to read. It is Dia Jose, Jose. It is not possible for me to travel to New Haven on the day of the unveiling of your portrait. It seems almost like yesterday that we first met, yet the years have passed and much has happened to each of us. What has remained constant is our friendship. You have been my advisor and my mentor, my entire professional life. My admiration and respect for you is boundless. Undoubtedly during the unveiling of your portrait today, others will speak about your professional life, your scholarship and your intellect. I'm assuming someone will talk about your humor and wit. I hope someone will also talk about what an extraordinarily kind and decent man you are. My thoughts will be with you on your day of celebration with warm regards, Sonia Soto-Major. I am the less distinguished of his two research assistants. I was in the class of 1977 and 1979 and 1991. I was 17 at the Yale Law School and I got through only because of people like Jose. I was at dinner the other night with three law school classmates, Sonia Soto-Major, Drew Rice, and Rudy Arrigan. We were joined by a writer who was helping Justice Soto-Major with a book about her experiences at Yale and elsewhere. The writer asked whether we had been comfortable at Yale and whether we had found Yale to be a welcoming place. The question was being asked to understand a four people, three of whom grew up in the projects, in the South Bronx, East Harlem and the South side of Chicago, and one of whom was from rural New Mexico. To boot, the four of us had grown up without fathers because of early death or wanderlust or alcohol. We also grew up poor with all the limitations and privations associated with poverty before the advent of the war on poverty. When being poor, often meant genuine hunger and want. The kind of hunger and want that is now not so common in America but still abounds in much of the world. Three of us knew Spanish before we knew English. Two of us were Vietnam veterans and one of us was a high school dropout and former juvenile delinquent. So were we comfortable at Yale and did we find it welcoming? Of course not. But then we weren't ready to be comfortable at Yale. At least some of us weren't ready to be comfortable or to accept its welcome. Indeed, as John McCarthy, another classmate once remarked, most of us walked around in a state of low dread that first year. Nothing so dramatic is to require a clinical intervention but comfortable, no, not very. I for one used to think of the principal corridor that runs through the middle of the law school building as something like the dark and moist gullet of some gigantic prehistoric creature, something the size of the biblical fish perhaps. Once passed the entrance to the law school, I felt drawn along by irresistible parasitic forces. The dread increasing exponentially, the farther I traveled down the corridor. I imagined that I was being drawn to some awful fate. Sonia, Drew, and Rudy probably felt something less dramatic than that but still they weren't comfortable either. Her first question having been answered, Sonia's right or friend then asked, did anyone make you feel welcome at Yale? The answer quickly was Jose. Jose Cabrán made us feel welcome. At the end of a corridor that I imagined to be lined with sharp teeth, I found, just as Sonia found, and others too, then Professor Cabrán is a man with a ready smile, a capacious heart, and an open hand. This was entirely unexpected, especially as we anticipated something else and did not then know very much about the Yale law school. Gerald Torres, another classmate used to say that we were ill at ease because we were lacking blueprints. Gerald claimed that folks like the wonderful and brilliant Seth Waxman, or the really, really smart Martha Mino, had arrived at Yale with blueprints to help and negotiate that dreadful corridor, as well as all the other things that made up life at the Yale law school. We were without blueprints, blueprints, Gerald, hence low dread, constant low dread. Professor Cabrán has changed all that, of course. Instead of sharp teeth or in difference, he offered acceptance and encouragement and friendship, and he became a guide for us, a padrino, if you will, an intellectual guide, a practical guide, a cultural guide, a professional guide, a social guide. He made it accessible, he made it safe, he made it comfortable. What was once unintelligible and apt to excite dysphoria became something that made sense, something that could be managed, that could be taken in, assimilated, made our own. He did this with good humor, charm, loyalty, and kindness. He took us into his confidence, and by extension, he took us into the school's confidence. In effect, he gave us blueprints. We owe much to his kindness, and kindness is no small thing, nor is it as common as we would like to believe. To be sure our religions encourage it, our value systems promoted, and all of us believe at bottom that we practice it as seriously and with great skill. I try to practice kindness every day, sometimes I can even sustain it for several minutes at a time. I can go eight, nine, even ten minutes thinking kind thoughts, and not wish you my neighbor ill, or hoping that the axle will fall off the Lexus, that just cut me off on i95. I practice kindness the way the old 60s poster suggested that many of us practice love. The poster said, I love humanity, it's people I can't stand. Not sell with judge he practices kindness consistently, tenaciously, even precognitively. This is to say that it is deeply embedded in him. You might say that kindness is a reflex with him. It was through his kindness that a group of students with no experience that might prepare them for Yale came to feel part of the community that is the Yale Law School, and he is as kind today as he was back then, always ready to support, to encourage, to mentor. And today when I am at my very best, when I'm helping a law student make a choice or negotiate a path, I am following his lead, and generous example. For that, and so much more, I say thank you, Judge Cabránis, and congratulations to you on this lovely honor. And thank you to the rest of you for being here today to honor this very fine man. Thank you Felix. Our next speaker is Mark Gautridge, who is currently co-head of the global financial services litigation practice at Hogan levels in New York. Most important for today's purposes, Mark was not just one of Judge Cabránis's first law clerks, he was Judge Cabránis's very first law clerk, I gather, he labored in that role for four months on his own. He not only helped the judge get things rolling, but he did something that a few other law clerks in history can claim to have done, and in the bar mitzvah theme, few have the Hutzboot to do, which is introduce Judge Cabránis to his current wife, Professor Stit. So, without further ado, Mark you're over there. Mark Gautridge. Thank you very much, Jesse, I appreciate that. It is really my distinct privilege today to share with you a few reflections on Judge Cabránis' extraordinary service on the bench of this court, the District of Connecticut, as District Judge and Chief Judge, is really only fitting that his portrait should be presented at a special ceremonial session of the District Court for the District of Connecticut, which is a court that Judge Cabránis graced for nearly 15 years. And it is also fitting that we meet today as Dorothy reminded us in the very same auditorium where on a chilly December day in 1979, which many of us remember Judge Cabránis was sworn in. And I remember very much reading with interest the New York Times that morning on the train up from Grand Central Station. The Times featured the new judge as the quote, man in the news. I think those before they had women in the news or people in the news. And readers of the Times, which our honoree might say, is the punitive newspaper of record in this country. The readers of the Times would have learned a great deal about the new judge from that article. He was the first native of Puerto Rico appointed to the federal bench in the continental United States. You would have learned from the Times that he would be turning 39 the next day that he had a brilliant academic record and had for many years able to serve the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and of course Yale University. But many in that auditorium, this auditorium that day, surely wondered what kind of judge would Judge Cabránis be. The Times always helpful gave us a hint. They quoted President Jamadi of this university predicting that Yale's loss would be quote a great gain for the federal judiciary. And the fullness of time, if I may, appropriated Cabránisism, would show that, yes, President Jamadi was exactly right. So, what was it that made Judge Cabránis such an exceptional district judge? His intellect, of course, as well as his extraordinary energy and work ethic. I really picked up on the point as the law clerk that Dorothy made of Judge Cabránis being there working late at night over the weekends side by side with the law clerk's crafting decisions, reading the cases, talking about what the case has said, and how they applied to the case at hand. Judge Cabránis also administered his docket efficiently, ensuring that lawyers moved their cases along. And he kept them on their toes in the courtroom, as well, with cogent questions. Always fair, but also very tough at times. Judge Cabránis delivered his decisions promptly, but without sacrificing in any way the quality of the judging. To the surprise of some Connecticut lawyers, at least in the early days, soon after a motion had been argued before Judge Cabránis, the judge would, after a recess, where appropriate come back out on the bench and dictate into the record a thorough, carefully reasoned, and well-supported ruling complete with case citations. Judge Cabránis was always alert for the lawyer or the litigant who was trying to pull one over on him, perhaps that's his New York City upbringing. The most extreme example that I've heard of this is that of a Colombian drug dealer, a criminal defendant in Judge Cabránis' court, who attempted to convince the judge at a hearing that the crop he was growing was actually strawberries. To which the judge remarked, who do I look like? Juan Valdez? There is not time today to discuss many of Judge Cabránis' decisions rendered as a member of this court, but I would like to mention a couple that I think I exemplify the meticulous approach of Judge Cabránis. In Republican party of the state of Connecticut against Tastion, Judge Cabránis held that the state's closed primary law, which prohibited a political party from allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in its primary elections, infringed the party members' first amendment right of association, that ruling was ultimately affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. In United States against Tornero, Judge Cabránis addressed several novel issues relating to the insanity defense, ultimately excluding evidence of the defendant's compulsive gambling, the Court of Appeals, affirmed. I should also mention the many complex cases arising out of the colonial realty fraud, a mass of punzy scheme whose principles sold real estate investment interests, limited partnership interest, the thousands of investors. Colonials collapsed, inflicted tremendous losses on the investors and scarred communities across this state. Hundreds of cases were filed, dozens of securities class actions, sprawling bankruptcy proceedings, and closely watched criminal cases. For years, Judge Cabránis ruled firmly and fairly in all of these matters, and his rulings were repeatedly affirmed on appeal. Judge Cabránis also excelled at the most difficult task that a district judge must face, sentencing, and he did this both before and after the introduction of what were then mandatory federal sentencing guidelines. In a scholarly book, which was co-authored with Professor Kate Stith Cabránis, as well as in speeches and articles, Judge Cabránis made a powerful case against the bureaucratic guidelines regime, but his actions as a sentencing judge spoke at least as forcefully as his words. Judge Cabránis is sentencing of defendants, even after the adoption of the guidelines and their dreaded grid, combined compassion and rigor, and reflected the judge's deep understanding of the purposes of sentencing, as well as the particular circumstances of the defendant and the interests of society and the victims in each individual case. Judge Cabránis was well known throughout this district for treating litigants and lawyers with great respect and patience, conducting his court with great decorum. He afforded litigants and lawyers an opportunity to make a record, as he would say, before rendering his decisions. And he was almost always ready, immediately, to rule on that record based on what had come out in front of the judge. The only exception of which I am aware involved a prospective juror in Hartford one day who came up to the sidebar to ask the judge out of the presence of the others or out of the hearing of the others to be excused from service on the jury. Because this prospective juror started his explanation too loudly, Judge Cabránis waived at him as a signal to keep his voice down so the others wouldn't hear. The prospective juror immediately dropped down to his knees, made the sign of the cross, and intoned, bless me, father, for I have sinned. All the judge could do was to declare a recess. I have that on unimpeachable authority, that story. On a more serious note, those of us who had the great fortune to have been law clerks for Judge Cabránis received an amazing education, not merely in federal procedure and jurisprudence, but in all the many subjects in which Judge Cabránis is so well versed, ranging from US foreign policy to the history of the New Deal, to the intricacies of politics in New York City, Puerto Rico, and many many other jurisdictions besides. He was to pick up on a point that Dorothy made the best editor that any one of us ever had or ever will have. We learned a lot from him in chambers, but more importantly, we gained a great friend and mentor for life, somebody who inspires in us boundless affection and admiration, and we are proud to join all of you today in honoring Judge Cabránis. Thank you, Mark. We're now entering the article three portion of our proceedings. Our next speaker requires little introduction in this setting, and in fact, he asked me not to introduce him, but I will anyway. He has a long record of distinguished service to this district and to our country as a whole, serving as among many other things. United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, United States District Judge for the District of Connecticut, and as the United States Circuit Judge on the Second Circuit since 1979, and as its Chief Judge from 1993 to 1997. Please welcome Judge John Newman. May it please court Chief Judge Thompson, distinguished members of my former court, Judge Granis, Kate, and friends all. It's great pleasure to be here and to celebrate this marvelous occasion where we honor not only one of the great judges of our court, but truly one of the great judges of the United States. Much has been already said to demonstrate what a truly outstanding judge he is, and it's even possible that the next speaker will also cover a bit of that ground. I can't count on that, but it is a distinct possibility. So I see no reason to gill the lily further. I've already said he's one of the greats of the nations, and I think that covers it all. I prefer to discuss another aspect of his career that perhaps has escaped your attention. It is the varieties of his heritage. It has been widely said that he is of Puerto Rican heritage. And I have no reason to doubt that, although I have not seen the birth certificate. But accepting that fact as I do and honor him for it, my point is that that's not his only heritage. There are other strands to the heritage of this distinguished fellow. One may surprise you, it is the strand of Connecticut Yankee. I suspect you didn't know that. But if you examine the brilliant account of the history of the District of Connecticut that he authored some years ago, you will see evidence. He not only surveyed the history of this district in the late 1790s, but he delighted in dwelling on the name of the second second judge of the District of Connecticut. Judge Pierpont Edwards. You don't get more Connecticut Yankee than Pierpont Edwards. He then went on to discuss a case that was handled in the early days, brought by a plaintiff whose name was Jedithan Cobb. This is all out of the Judge Capronis' lecture. Jedithan Cobb. So he delights in recounting Connecticut Yankee history. He's very good at it. Now there's another strain. Perhaps a little better known to you. It's the New York strain. I don't mean just that he spent many years in Queens and was active in New York political and civic affairs. I mean the extent to which he brings New York lore into his opinions. I give you an example. Taking a fairly obscure case that came to our court from the National Labor Relations Board. The Judge wrote, our subject is labor relations at Katz's delicatessen, a landmark rough and ready eating establishment on the northern precincts of Fable Lowery's side. It is a legendary site of pilgrimage by among others domestic political campaigners and foreign visitors in search of photo opportunities placing them in a New York setting authenticated by the proximity to hot pastrami and stuffed dharma. He went on. Katz's has earned a reputation for its contribution to the national defense. Having advertised its take-out menu with the immortal rhyme, send a salami to your boy in the army. And he continued with the fact that Katz's delicatessen was visited by Vice President Gore and Premier Chamorrand. And he quoted the owner as saying, we'll treat them rudely like we treat everyone else. It's part of the New York ethos. Who but a New Yorker would write lines like that. Another case that caught my attention illustrating this point is one that began, this is his opinion, the question presented in this case concerns a rarely celebrated but instantly recognizable feature of everyday life in New York City subway breaks. 24 hours a day and 365 days a year the city subway cars safely stop at 468 passenger stations and as any strap hanger knows, many times in between, depositing writers of all classes and descriptions in homes, workplaces, ball parks, and every other destination imaginable. The subway is an indelible feature of the city's culture. Its legend and lore fascinate locals and visitors alike. And he goes on to recount how it subways are celebrated in literature and musical comedy. Even quoting the well-known lines from the Leonard Bernstein show, the Bronx is up the batteries down and the people ride in a hole in the ground. Who but a New Yorker would inject those delicious remarks into the federal reporter. Now there's another strain. It has been alluded to today but not illustrated. And that is a strain of his heritage. That is the Jewish strain or perhaps the Yiddish strain. Encountering a case that tickled his fancy, he decided to craft a eloquent footnote explaining that this case was an example of Hutzpah. And he wrote in this footnote, Hutzpah is a legal term of art you didn't know that. Is a legal term of art analytically similar to unclean hands but being the careful scholar that he is adding though not necessarily co-terminus with that concept as understood in chanceary. He then illustrated the point. First he mentioned actually a case of mine in which a former New York state senator while serving a sentence for selling stolen bonds to the second New Haven bank here in New Haven sued the bank for negligence contending that if the teller had checked the day's list of stolen bonds that day the bonds would not have been accepted and he would not have been convicted. Judge Cabrana's continues with his exegesis on the word mentioning the case of an individual quoting an individual who after being mauled by the 450 pounds Siberian tiger he had been raising inside his fifth floor apartment sued the city and the police who entered the apartment to save the animal for doing so without a warrant. So this is a man of broad heritage covers many faces. Indeed I think it's fair to say he is a man of universal heritage and not only do these frivolous examples that I've called your attention illustrate that but his career and his writings both in the scholarly academic world and in his opinions illustrate that too. He has taught and written widely on international law and international human rights. He is rightly rightly regarded as a scholar in those fields. So Jose it's totally fitting that generations of Yale law students will see this painting in the reading room the Yale Law of the Alumni Room of the Yale Law School where you will gaze down on them and they will take justifiable inspiration from you. I congratulate you on this wonderful event. Thank you Judge Newman. Next up is another judge who also requires little introduction especially in these halls where he has served as a member of the faculty for almost half a century. He has also served our country with great distinction as a circuit judge on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit since 1981 and as its chief judge from 1997 to 2000 as the chair of the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference and as a member of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court of Appeals. I think a court that has somehow managed issue only two opinions and its entire existence but that's okay. The latter two by appointment of the Chief Justice of the United States and please welcome the Honorable Ralph Winter. May it please the Court. I've been dying to say that all afternoon. This is the first time in 30 years and it's the first time I've ever said it to judges who were my students and I like to think it's the first time they've felt unthreatened in my presence. This will be a unique speech today. There will be no Yiddish being entirely in English and I want to say it's a pleasure to be here although it's somehow the fulfillment of a duty to a friend of almost 50 years. When I heard that there was a court meeting to hang Jose Cabrana's I thought I'd better be there the vote may be close. I've not seen the subject of my speech was going to be Jose Cabrana's the dark side. I mentioned that to him and he immediately reminded me that he got to speak last. So today I have a different topic. I've not seen the portrait but it surely I'm sure it captures this brilliant and influential man of character and perception. Not only a scholar, lawyer, and jurist, but also a mentor, a narrator, commentator, entertainer, father, and husband. Still, part of him will be missing. What would a complete portrait of Jose Cabrana look like? J.A.C., as he's known on the court, is a fountain of valuable cornucopia of communications. A complete portrait will be a portrait of constant action. It would portray him sitting at his desk a phone on his shoulder, necessary equipment while conversing with an unidentified listener. Honest knee would be a cell phone to be put to use if the landline went on hold or died. At the same time, he would be typing away in his computer, exchanging emails with several others while simultaneously lecturing lawsuits. Scattered on his desk would be a variety of items. Perhaps Edmund Burke's reflections on the French Revolution, Michael Barone's All-Milac of American Politics, and the latest New York post-colon by Cindy Alex. There would also be an American flag. The topics covered among this multitude of communications would vary. They would certainly include tips to Amy on work in California, comments to Jennifer on her latest column, conversations about the Yankees with Alejo and Ben, or he might even talk with a colleague about sporting events involving the boys. I have an ungood authority that his interest in sports is recently acquired, largely because of the boys' interest. I have this from a good source, noted in my chambers as J.A.C. Jr. who has quoted Judge Cabrantis as saying, the Cabrantis is exercise their mind, not their body. Nine topics of these communications might emanate from the truly incredible breadth of J.A.C.'s recreational reading. They might include dissertations. I'm instructive but often forgotten episodes of American history, including events in World War II, the Cold War, political appointments at which J.A.C. is both knowledgeable and adept. I'm very or various ongoing controversies. I can testify firsthand that these might even include the New York City medialty of one Vincent in military, not a household topic of conversation at dinner time. J.A.C. would bring to these subjects not only a detailed knowledge of facts, but also very pragmatic, non-doctrine-air, independent, and iconoclastic analysis. He might, for example, question whether some modern views of what is recognized as Internet National Law have little foundation other than statements made by the legal professoriate, by members of the legal professoriate, that's from recent conference, or he might express mild skepticism about the governance of American universities. His analysis would also reflect an unabashed and unashamed patriotism, for his example in his bemoaning of educational measures designed in his view to negate a belief in American exceptionalism. In the background of this portrait would be a number of figures, almost all with expressions of unqualified admiration and gratitude. Former law clerks would reflect with admiration on the education they received from their year in his service, as we've heard today. Colleagues would be grateful for well-considered advice and a very warm friendship. But there would also be a couple of isolated shadowy individuals with expressions ranging from quizzical to worry. An emeritus professor from Columbia might gaze at the scene darkly and think, I have been worried about this since his article in the Columbia paper expressing a slightly negative view of Eleanor Roosevelt. A law professor would wonder if some of these views could have been formed, given that the professor had taught JAC everything that the professor knew. The final figure would be a university administrator wondering what transparency means. Actual portraits cannot ever capture the complete person, but I have no doubt that this portrait will honor this man of character and perception. About that, I can say only it's about time. Well, we are now ready for the reason you've actually come here, which is to unveil the portrait and to see how well it does capture the man, and then the bar mitzvah boy himself gets to speak. Before we reveal the portrait, I just want to offer my profoundest thanks on behalf of all the clerks to the portrait's creator, the extraordinarily talented Daniel Mark Duffy. Daniel's biography is on the back of your program, so I won't belabor his many accomplishments. I also think he might get some grief if I did from his daughter who is here with him today. What I will tell you is that Judge Cabrónas's portrait will, quite remarkably, be Daniel's eighth to grace the halls of the Yale Law School. When you see his masterpiece in a moment, I think you will understand why he has received so many commissions from here and elsewhere. As you will see, although Judge Winter is correct, and a portrait cannot capture everything about a man, I