Education and career
Tjoflat was born in 1929 in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania. His father,an electrical engineer,was of Norwegian ancestry,and his mother was an immigrant from Chile. [2]
Tjoflat attended the University of Virginia on a baseball scholarship. After two years,financial constraints forced him to transfer to the University of Cincinnati,where he completed his undergraduate degree. Tjoflat then enrolled in the University of Cincinnati College of Law,but he was drafted into the U.S. Army at the end of his first semester to serve in the Korean War. He served in the Army until 1955,attaining the rank of corporal. After leaving the Army,Tjoflat returned to Cincinnati and completed his first year of law school. He then transferred to the Duke University School of Law,graduating in 1957 with a Bachelor of Laws. [2]
Tjoflat was in private practice in Jacksonville,Florida from 1957 to 1968 and served as a judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida in Jacksonville from 1968 to 1970. [3]
Federal judicial service
President Richard Nixon nominated Tjoflat to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida on October 7,1970,to a new seat created by 84 Stat. 294. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 13,1970,he received his commission three days later. His service terminated on December 12,1975,due to his elevation to the Fifth Circuit. [3]
President Gerald Ford nominated Tjoflat to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on November 3,1975,to a seat vacated by Judge John Milton Bryan Simpson. He was confirmed by the Senate on November 20,1975,he received his commission the next day and began serving on the court on December 12,1975. [3] Tjoflat was reassigned by operation of law to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on October 1,1981,when that court was established. He served as Chief Judge from 1989 to 1996. [3] His Chilean ancestry makes Tjoflat the first Hispanic circuit judge in the United States. [2]
Following the failure of the Robert Bork nomination in 1987,Tjoflat was placed on the short list of possible nominees for the Supreme Court seat formerly occupied by Lewis F. Powell Jr. [4] Former Governor Claude R. Kirk Jr. pushed for Tjoflat to be nominated after Douglas H. Ginsburg withdrew, [5] but although Florida Senators Lawton Chiles and Bob Graham both considered Tjoflat more viable than Bork, [6] it was always uncertain whether Northeastern Democrats would have found him acceptable, [7] and consequently the seat went to Anthony Kennedy.
Senior status
In August 2019,Tjoflat informed President Donald Trump that he will take senior status contingent upon the confirmation and appointment of his successor. [8] He was the last federal judge in active service to have been appointed to his position by President Ford, [a] and the last federal judge in active service appointed to the bench by President Nixon. [b] Measured by time in active service,Tjoflat remains as of 2025 the fourth-longest-serving federal judge. [c] On November 19,2019,his successor,Robert J. Luck,was confirmed and received his commission the same day. After Luck received his commission,Tjoflat assumed senior status on the same day. [3] Tjoflat continues to regularly sit on cases and author opinions. [9]
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