José Trías Monge was a lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 and judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

 in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

. He served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico

Supreme Court of Puerto Rico

The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico is the highest court of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, having judicial authority within Puerto Rico to interpret and decide questions of Commonwealth law. As the highest body of the judicial branch of the Puerto Rican government, it is analogous to one of the...

 from 1974 to 1985. He was appointed, without any prior court service, by Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón

Rafael Hernández Colón

Rafael Hernández Colón is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the fourth Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for three non-consecutive terms, from 1973 to 1977 and from 1985 to 1993. An experienced politician, Hernández holds the record for being the youngest Governor of Puerto Rico,...

, who as President of the Senate of Puerto Rico

Senate of Puerto Rico

The Senate of Puerto Rico is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate is composed of 27 senators, representing eight constituent senatorial districts across the commonwealth, with two senators elected per district; an...

 between 1969 and 1972 had espoused that Chief Justices should be selected from among current Associate Justices.

Prior to his service as Chief Justice, Trías Monge served as Attorney General under Gov. Luis Muñoz Marín

Luis Muñoz Marín

Don José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín was a Puerto Rican poet, journalist, and politician. Regarded as the "father of modern Puerto Rico," he was the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. Muñoz Marín was the son of Luis Muñoz Rivera, a renowned autonomist leader...

 and one of the top delegates to Puerto Rico's Constitutional Assembly between 1951 and 1952. Along with Muñoz Marín and Dr. Antonio Fernós Isern he is considered one of the chief architects of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico's Constitution. As Chief Justice, he chaired the 1980 Constitutional Board for Electoral Reapportionment.

Trias Monge is the author of several books on the judicial history and political status of Puerto Rico, in both Spanish and English.

Several years prior to his death, he began writing and speaking publicly that Puerto Rico remained a territory or colony of the United States, despite the 1952 approval of the Commonwealth Constitution that he was instrumental in drafting.

Sources

• La Justicia en sus Manos, by Luis Rafael Rivera, 2007, ISBN 1-57581-884-1