Hon. John T. Curtin ’49
Hon. John T. Curtin ’49 was a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, nominated in 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and its chief judge from 1974-1989, when he assumed senior status. He was considered one of the giants of the court.
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Interview Date(s)
July 24, 2000
Interviewed By
Denise O'Donnell
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About the Hon. John T. Curtin
Judge Curtin’s father was an only child and attended Canisius High School. A supervisor at Bethlehem Steel, he and his mother stressed the importance of education to their sons. The judge had three brothers—he was the oldest—and all attended Canisius High School, where he studied Latin and Greek. He then went to Canisius College, but left in 1942 to enter the Marine Corps during World War II. After he returned and graduated from Canisius in 1946, he started law school. The military had taught him discipline, organization, dealing with others and dealing with his superiors. He chose law school for practical reasons: It was only three years.
He enjoyed law school and liked his professors. He named Dean Louis Jaffe, William Laidlaw, Albert Mugel, Jacob Hyman, Dean Carlos Alden and Dr. Lenhoff, among others. He preferred having the law school downtown near the courts and believed it was a mistake moving the law school to Amherst. Students could see excellent lawyers try cases and cross-examine witnesses, and see bad lawyers in practice as well, he said.
Judge Curtin was appointed U.S. Attorney while John F. Kennedy was president and Robert F. Kennedy was attorney general. Buffalo had the first organized crime unit in the country that included both federal and local agents, and he had developed a good relationship with RFK. Curtin went on the bench in 1967, and Kennedy remained AG while Johnson was president. When an opening occurred for a federal judge in the Western District of New York, Kennedy suggested to LBJ that he appoint Judge Curtin.
Judge Curtin’s contributions to the Western District were innumerable and significant throughout his career. The following cases are a sample:
- In 1976, Judge Curtin ruled on the case Arthur v. Nyquist, which involved the integration of the Buffalo Public Schools. He ruled that the schools were “deliberately segregated” and that they would need to begin desegregation efforts immediately.
- Judge Curtin presided over the Buffalo Five trial, involving five individuals arrested for breaking into Buffalo’s Old Post Office in 1971 in an attempt to burn draft records.
- He presided over the historic Love Canal trial.
During his tenure on the federal bench, Judge Curtin served as the district’s Second Circuit representative to the Judicial Conference of the United States. He was also a member of the Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts.
Born Aug. 24, 1921—Died April 14, 2017