Joseph H. Rodriguez

The Honorable Joseph H. Rodriguez, Senior Judge in New Jersey’s United States District Court, became New Jersey’s first Latino District Court judge in 1985 after being nominated by then-president Ronald Reagan. The Camden native attended Camden Catholic High School (1949) and LaSalle University (A.B. 1955) and was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Honor Society, before earning his L.L.B. (1958) and J.D. (1968) from Rutgers Law Camden.

Longtime friend, fellow Camden County lawyer, and early Legal Services staffer Carl Poplar, Esq. recalls, “Joe was, at the time, only one of four Hispanic lawyers in the state. … It was sort of a white male dominated practice.” In 1959, he was hired by Brown & Connery and “transcended anything and everything to be a member of the community.”

Rodriguez’s father entered the United States via a lifeboat, following a German attack on the SS Carolina as it neared the Jersey shore from Puerto Rico. Originally from Cuba, he had moved to Puerto Rico and traveled from there to the United States during World War I, eventually becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen.

“I was old enough to hear him when he was studying the Constitution,” says Rodriguez. “He was impressed by certain words of the Constitution—without regard to race, creed, color, national origin. Words that are just thrown around. But he believed in that.”

Rodriguez’s mother was from Puerto Rico. The two took their role as the first Hispanic family in Camden seriously; helping scores of neighbors as the community grew, working with a local priest to start the first church, orchestrating the first Puerto Rican Day parade, and eventually becoming involved in local politics.

“It just so happened that I took my oath of office in the same court room where he [my father] became an American citizen,” shares Rodriguez. “And I’ve had the opportunity now to conduct naturalization ceremonies myself. With that start of the law and the Constitution that I heard—you know—as a kid … you had to live up to these principles that you believed in.”

“It was a rich cultural history,” says the judge’s daughter Lisa Rodriguez, Esq., of Dilworth Paxson LLC and member of the Legal Services of New Jersey board of trustees. “My grandparents were so proud of my father for all he accomplished and for his position in the Hispanic community in Camden.”

Over the years, Rodriguez did not stray far from his childhood home on Federal Street, but successfully navigated the divisive social and political issues of Camden, while staying true to his community and his high ideals.

During the 1960s, when the vibrant city of his youth suffered the economic impact of “white flight” and social unrest, Rodriguez was “right in the middle of those storms,” says Poplar. In 1971, when a young Hispanic man was hospitalized following a police altercation, Rodriguez worked with his friend Mayor Joseph Nardi, local law enforcement, and the governor’s office as a mediator of sorts—regularly walking the streets at night to instill calm and help ensure safety.

Rodriguez also served on the first board of Camden Legal Services and was instrumental in the success of the program. Peter O’Connor, Esq., founder, president, and CEO of Fair Share Housing Center, recalls meeting Rodriguez “at a critical juncture in the life of Legal Services.” O’Connor, who was fresh out of law school, was abruptly terminated from the Gloucester-Salem-Cumberland Legiscope program (a precursor of Legal Services) for taking on controversial causes. It was Rodriguez, along with David Epstein, Esq. and George Krueger, Esq., who secured funding from the regional program in New York needed to merge the southern counties into Camden Regional Legal Services and keep O’Connor employed.

“I’d say the most significant thing at Legal Services that I did and Joe Rodriguez played a really integral part, was the bringing of the Mount Laurel case. There were three of us involved. The chief counsel on the case was Carl Bisgaier, who had just come from Penn Law School. I had come from Georgetown; and Ken Meiser was a student, if you believe this, at Harvard, but worked full time with us in Camden. … We were mainly just out of school for a while and we didn’t have the skills to do that effectively. And so we went over to Brown & Connery and we set up night meetings with Joe Rodriguez. We told him the problem and Joe helped us literally draft the original Mount Laurel complaint, which was filed in May of 1971, leading to two Supreme Court cases of Mount Laurel I in ‘75, Mount Laurel II in 1983. Both unanimous decisions. … That’s something that Joe never publicized, but he was an integral part of that effort, leading to probably one of the most significant civil rights and affordable housing cases in the country.”

From 1971 to 1973, Rodriguez was chair of the state’s Board of Higher Education, where he worked to make community college available in every New Jersey county and helped open two public universities—Ramapo College of New Jersey and Stockton University. From 1974 to 1979, he was chair of the State Commission of Investigation, where he oversaw investigations of boarding homes, nursing homes, and Medicare fraud. And from 1978 to 1979, he was president of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Rodriguez was appointed by Governor Thomas H. Kean to become the second New Jersey Public Advocate, a position he held from February 1982 to May 1985. In 1985, he ascended to the position of U.S. District Court Judge, District of NJ, and became the first Latino in New Jersey’s history to hold that position. Judge Rodriguez achieved senior status in 1998.

At 93 years old, Judge Rodriguez continues to handle cases and preside over jury trials. “He’s as sharp as a tack,” says Poplar. “Lawyers are thrilled to go before him. He unquestionably is considered to be one of the better federal district court judges in this region of the country. He handles some of the real controversial cases with distinction.”

Despite the demands of a long and distinguished career, Rodriguez has always prioritized family. Surrounded in his chambers by dozens of photos—of wife, Barbara, his four daughters, ten grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren—he is as proud of them as he is of any other accomplishments. “I’ve always looked up to him,” says daughter, Lisa. “I think he’s pretty special.”