José Alberto Cabranes
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, José Alberto Cabranes is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1965. He previously served on the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1940 · age 86
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1994
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Columbia 1961 · Yale Law School 1965
- Succeeded
- Richard J. Cardamone
- Succeeded by
- Maria Araujo Kahn
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | District of Connecticut succeeded Jon Ormond Newman | Carter (D) | Voice vote |
| 1994 | Second Circuit succeeded Richard J. Cardamone | Clinton (D) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| Columbia University | A.B. | 1961 |
| Yale Law School | J.D. | 1965 |
| University of Cambridge, Queens' College | M.Litt. | 1967 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Cabranes was assigned 1,079 district-court cases (1980–1994). Median time from filing to termination: 412 days across 1,079 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
In our data, Cabranes authored 174 published opinions for the court (1980–2009). Most cited: Finkel v. Romanowicz (765 citations).
Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Selected opinions
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Finkel v. Romanowicz | 577 F.3d 79 | 765 |
| 1993 | Ensign-Bickford Co. v. ICI EXPLOSIVES USA INC. | 817 F. Supp. 1018 | 74 |
| 1983 | Martin-Trigona v. Lavien | 573 F. Supp. 1237 | 68 |
| 1991 | McCann v. Communications Design Corp. | 775 F. Supp. 1506 | 54 |
| 1984 | Monti v. McKeon | 600 F. Supp. 112 | 53 |
| 1984 | Martin-Trigona v. Lavien | 592 F. Supp. 1566 | 43 |
| 1980 | Bross Utilities Service Corp. v. Aboubshait | 489 F. Supp. 1366 | 43 |
| 1993 | Claps v. Moliterno Stone Sales, Inc. | 819 F. Supp. 141 | 36 |
| 1986 | Connecticut Fund for the Environment v. Contract Plating Co. | 631 F. Supp. 1291 | 35 |
| 1992 | Johnson v. NCB Collection Services | 799 F. Supp. 1298 | 34 |
| 1983 | Martin-Trigona v. Lavien | 573 F. Supp. 1245 | 34 |
| 1993 | Lamontagne v. EI Du Pont De Nemours and Co. | 834 F. Supp. 576 | 33 |
| 1985 | Connecticut Fund for Environment v. Job Plating Co. | 623 F. Supp. 207 | 33 |
| 1982 | McCarthy v. Manson | 554 F. Supp. 1275 | 32 |
| 1986 | L. Cohen & Co., Inc. v. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. | 629 F. Supp. 1419 | 29 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 174 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed José Alberto Cabranes?
- President William J. Clinton appointed José Alberto Cabranes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1994.
- Was José Alberto Cabranes appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- José Alberto Cabranes was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was José Alberto Cabranes's confirmation vote?
- José Alberto Cabranes was confirmed by voice vote on August 9, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is José Alberto Cabranes on?
- José Alberto Cabranes is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Unknown author (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
32 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).