Thomas Meskill

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Thomas Joseph Meskill Jr. (January 30, 1928 – October 29, 2007) was a

In 1958, Meskill made a failed bid for the

On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon, in one of the last acts of his presidency, nominated Meskill to serve as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, comprising Connecticut, New York, and Vermont. The nomination proved controversial and was not acted on by the United States Senate that year. On January 16, 1975, President Gerald Ford renominated Meskill to be the 38th judge of the Second Circuit court, succeeding to the seat vacated by Judge J. Joseph Smith (himself a former Member of Congress).^[1] The nomination was opposed by many groups including the American Bar Association, which cited Meskill's lack of legal experience.^[2] Law professors from Meskill's alma mater, the University of Connecticut, also opposed the nomination stating in a letter to the Senate "it is clear from his record as Governor that he lacks the judicial temperament which might have compensated for his want of experience....As Governor he has repeatedly shown himself insensitive to the rights of the poor and the disadvantaged, and indifferent to civil and political liberties." Nonetheless, Meskill's nomination was confirmed on April 22, 1975, by a 54–36 vote. He was commissioned to his seat the next day.^[1] One year later, however, his most ardent critic, Lawrence E. Walsh, who, as President of the American Bar Association had led the opposition to Meskill, publicly admitted his error and called Meskill a "hardworking, able judge." Other organizations that had opposed his appointment would also reverse course by honoring his judicial service. The Connecticut Bar Association awarded Meskill its highest award for judicial service, the Henry J. Naruk Award, in 1994. In that same year, the Federal Bar Council recognized Meskill for his "excellence in federal jurisprudence" by awarding him its Learned Hand Medal. In 1982, the University of Connecticut Law School honored Meskill with its Connecticut Law Review Award, commending him for his "commitment to public service" and for the "intellectual honesty and conviction" that characterized his career.

Meskill remained a judge for the rest of his life. He served as the Second Circuit's Chief Judge from 1992 to 1993. Meskill assumed senior status on June 30, 1993, which he retained until his death some 32 years after he took the bench.^[1]

Noteworthy cases

Meskill participated in many influential rulings during his tenure on the Court, including several adopted by the United States Supreme Court. Among his noteworthy rulings, in Barnes v. Jones (2d Cir. 1981), a criminal case, Meskill disagreed with the majority, stating that appointed counsel should not have to present all non-frivolous arguments requested by his client. The United States Supreme Court agreed with Meskill and reversed the Second Circuit majority, holding that an indigent defendant did not have a constitutional right to compel appointed counsel to press non-frivolous points, where, as a matter of professional judgment, counsel chose not to do so. Meskill's dissenting opinion prevailed in two other Second Circuit cases in which the Supreme Court granted certiorari, Herbert v. Lando (2d Cir. 1977), and Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enters (2d Cir. 1983). In Herbert, the majority concluded that, in a defamation suit brought by a public figure, the First Amendment affords a privilege to disclosure of a journalist's exercise of editorial control and judgment. Meskill predicted the Supreme Court's rejection of the majority's "new constitutional privilege"; the Supreme Court reversed the Second Circuit, affording no absolute privilege to the editorial process of a media defendant in a libel case. Similarly, in Harper & Row Publishers, the Second Circuit concluded over Meskill's dissent that the publication of verbatim excerpts from former president Ford's unpublished memoir constituted a "fair use" under the Copyright Act, as the excerpts involved important matters of state. The Supreme Court disagreed and again sided with Meskill, concluding that the fact that excerpts were newsworthy did not alone shield the publisher from copyright liability.

Personal life

Meskill married Mary Grady; they had five children.^[7]

Meskill died in Boynton Beach, Florida on October 29, 2007, at the age of 79.^[5][1] At the time of his passing, Meskill had homes in Berlin, Connecticut and Delray Beach, Florida.^[5] The law library at the University of Connecticut Law School was named after Meskill posthumously.^[8]

References

External links

• Thomas Joseph Meskill at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• United States Congress. "Thomas Meskill (id: M000667)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress