23-02-2025
Bruce Selya, revered RI judge, dies at 90
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Bruce Selya, a longtime Rhode Island judge who rose to serve on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has died. He was 90.
The Providence native was the first Jewish judge to sit on the federal bench in Rhode Island when he was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1982. Four years later, Reagan tapped Selya to serve on the appellate court in Boston.
Selya entered senior status at the 1st Circuit in 2006 but continued to hear cases as recently as last year.
Among those who clerked for Selya in Boston was Ketanji Brown Jackson, who would later become a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2022 – when Brown Jackson was President Joe Biden's pick to serve on the country's highest court – Selya told 12 News, 'I literally don't think that the president could have made a better choice.'
Selya was known for his expansive vocabulary and creatively written decisions. He told a legal website in a 2004 interview, 'I don't believe there are obscure words — just neglected ones.'
In 2022, when the 1st Circuit rejected convicted Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia's bid for a new trial, Selya wrote that the disgraced official's arguments were 'all foam and no beer.'
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed called Selya a 'legal legend whose outstanding contributions to the community and the people of Rhode Island go well beyond his four decades of remarkable service on the federal bench.'
'As a judge, Bruce Selya was nationally renowned and respected and set a high bar that many others in his profession admire and aspire to reach,' Reed said in a statement. 'As a man, he will be remembered for his exemplary devotion to the law and uplifting others, particularly those in his beloved hometown of Providence.'
Reed said Selya took part in more than 1,800 decisions 'that helped shape and influence the nation's jurisprudence.'
Selya attended Classical High School in Providence, then went on to Harvard for both his undergraduate and law degrees.
After entering senior status, Selya served as chief judge of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which reviews electronic surveillance warrants sought by federal authorities.
In 2023, the city of Providence renamed a street adjacent to U.S. District Court 'Bruce Selya Way.' In a ceremony attended by a who's-who of the Rhode Island legal community, political leaders and family and friends, Selya talked about his Providence roots.
'Any way you slice it, I am a Providence guy and I think that you can understand against that backdrop why this street naming has such great meaning for me,' Selya said. 'The street itself is a short street, but it runs adjacent to this building and so it links me in perpetuity both with the city that I love and with the courthouse that has become my second home.'
WATCH: Judge Selya's speech during street renaming
Tim White (twhite@ is Target 12 managing editor and chief investigative reporter and host of Newsmakers for 12 News. Connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
