[3] In 1979, Torruella was the judge in various criminal trespass cases against demonstrators who entered a beach in Vieques to protest its use by the U.S. Navy.

Some of the demonstrators were radical pro-independence advocates and refused to acknowledge the federal court's jurisdiction or to defend themselves at trial.

[4] Torruella was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on August 1, 1984, to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, to a new seat created by 98 Stat.

[12] In August 2017, Torruella wrote a lengthy dissent when the en banc circuit rejected a lawsuit challenging Puerto Rico's exclusion from congressional apportionment.

[18] In 2009, Torruella wrote the opinion in Noonan v. Staples, Inc., allowing a suit for libel to proceed because even though the statements at issue were true they reflected "actual malice."

")[19][20] Torruella's decision did not decide the question of whether this exception was inconsistent with the Constitution's First Amendment because the argument was raised too late in the proceedings.

"[19] In 2012, Torruella joined a unanimous First Circuit panel decision (written by Judge Michael Boudin) in Massachusetts v. United States Department of Health and Human Services.

The decision struck down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied federal benefits to all same-sex couples, even those legally married under state law.

Torruella cited the precedent in the trial of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing, in which a change of venue to Denver was granted.

[25][26][27] In June 2020, Torruella wrote for the unanimous panel when it found that Nestlé's chocolate wrappers did not need to disclose if they were made from cocoa production in Ivory Coast using forced child labor.

[4] As a yachtsman, Torruella made several long-distance sea voyages, including two trans-Atlantic crossings in 1992, on the 500th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage; a few years later, Torruella undertook an 8,000-mile sailing trip across the Caribbean Sea and Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean, where he visited the Galápagos Islands and Puerto Montt, Chile, before traveling to Buenos Aires, Argentina, via Cape Horn.

[4] Torruella met his wife, Judith (Judy) Wirt in 1955 and had two sons (including fellow Puerto Rican Olympic sailor Juan Jr.), two daughters, eight grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren.

[1] Torruella died on October 26, 2020, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from a massive heart attack, at the age of 87.