Paul Cashman Reardon (December 23, 1909 – July 29, 1988) was an American justice of theMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1962 to 1972. He was appointed by GovernorJohn Volpe.[1]
Born inQuincy, Massachusetts to Dr. Daniel B. Reardon and Mary Cashman Reardon, Reardon attendedQuincy High School where he was "the premier debater on the Quincy team".[2] Reardon spent a year atPhillips Academy inAndover, Massachusetts, before enteringHarvard College, from which he received aB.A., cum laude, in 1932.[2][3] He received hisJ.D. fromHarvard Law School in 1935, and entered the practice of law with a Massachusetts firm that year.
In 1939, Reardon started his own practice and married Ann Leich.[2] Reardon joined theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II, achieving the rank of Lieutenant.[2] Following the war he again practiced with a firm until 1953, when he was appointed as Counsel to GovernorChristian Herter.
In 1955, Herter appointed Reardon Chief Justice of theMassachusetts Superior Court, and in 1957 Reardon was instrumental in establishing the National Conference of State Trial Judges, which facilitated communication between judges of different states on strategies for handling the common problem of congested dockets and backlogged cases.[2] During this time, Reardon was elected to serve as President of the Harvard Alumni Association for the 1959-1960 term.[2][3]
In 1962, GovernorJohn A. Volpe appointed Reardon to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, where Reardon sat for 15 years until his retirement in 1976.[1][2] In 1964, at the invitation ofAmerican Bar Association PresidentLewis Powell, Reardon chaired a ten-member national committee to examine the relationship between thefree press andfair trials and establish "guidelines for regulating news coverage of criminal trials".[1] In 1966, the committee issued a lengthy report finding many issues arising from the conduct of law enforcement officers and attorneys,[1] and recommending "rules for lawyers, courts and law enforcement officials to follow in preventing news stories from prejudicing juries in criminal cases".[2] The report was condemned by news organizations, but endorsed by the American Bar Association and enacted to some degree into the legal codes of ethics of all fifty states.[2] During his time on the court, Reardon he wrote over 600 opinions, including a 1969 opinion postponing an inquest into the death ofMary Jo Kopechne,[1] and a 1973 opinion in the case ofSchool Committee of Boston v. Board of Education,[4] holding that despite imperfections in a plan to achieveracial desegregation of Boston's schools, the board carrying out this effort had acted within its authority to impose various rules towards this effort.[2]
Reardon and his wife, Ann, were married for 49 years, until his death. They had two sons and two daughters.[1]
Reardon died ofheart failure atMassachusetts General Hospital at the age of 78,[1] and was interred atMount Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy.[5]
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| Preceded by | Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court 1962–1972 | Succeeded by |