Served as chair (and subsequently acting chair) of the United States Sentencing Commission from 2004-2009. He became the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in November 2009, having served on that court since 1983. He served as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law. From 1976 until 1983, he was an attorney with the Ewers & Toothaker Law Firm in McAllen, Texas, and was a partner at the time he became a judge. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972, and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1975. Judge Hinojosa received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Texas Ex-Students’ Association in 2001. He served as member (1979-83) and chairman (1981-83) of the Pan American University Board of Regents and in 1986 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Pan American University Alumni Association.