Alvin Benjamin Rubin

Alvin Benjamin Rubin (March 13, 1920 – June 11, 1991) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and previously a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Education and career

Born in Alexandria in Rapides Parish in central Louisiana, Rubin received a Bachelor of Science degree from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in 1941 and a Bachelor of Laws from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in 1942. He was in private practice in Louisiana from 1946 to 1966.

He started teaching as an adjunct law professor the year after he graduated from law school and taught continuously at LSU for over 46 years, in addition to lecturing at Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago, and many other law schools.

Federal judicial service

On August 16, 1966, Rubin was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana created by 80 Stat. 75. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 20, 1966, and received his commission on November 3, 1966. Rubin served in that capacity until October 8, 1977, when he was elevated to the Fifth Circuit. One of his law clerks while he served on the district court was future United States Representative William Jefferson), the first African American to represent Louisiana in the United States House of Representatives since Reconstruction.

In 1992, the Louisiana Law Review devoted its entire edition to Judge Rubin with articles about him written by, among others, Justice Byron White (U.S. Supreme Court), Judge John Minor Wisdom (U.S. Fifth Circuit), Judge Henry A. Politz (U.S. Fifth Circuit) and many others.