John M. Greaney (born April 8, 1939) is a former Associate Justice of the

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the distinction of being the oldest continuously functi ...

and former Chief Justice of the

Massachusetts Appeals Court The Massachusetts Appeals Court is the intermediate appellate court of Massachusetts. It was created in 1972 as a court of general appellate jurisdiction. The court is located at the John Adams Courthouse at Pemberton Square in Boston, the same ...

. After his judicial retirement, he served as Director of the Macaronis Institute for Trial and Appellate Advocacy at

Suffolk University Law School Suffolk University Law School (also known as Suffolk Law School) is the private, non-sectarian law school of Suffolk University located in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, across the street from the Boston Common and the Freedom Trail, two block ...

. He currently is in private practice as senior counsel at Bulkley Richardson in Springfield, Massachusetts. John Greaney was born in

Westfield, Massachusetts Westfield is a city in Hampden County, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, United States. Westfield was first settled by Europeans in 1660. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population w ...

, on April 8, 1939. He graduated from St Mary's High School, the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private, Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston. Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the olde ...

, and received a law degree from

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in Ne ...

. After briefly serving in the military, Chief Justice Greaney joined the Springfield law firm of Ely and King until his appointment to the Hampden County Housing Court in 1974. Greaney served as presiding judge in the Housing Court until Governor

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis (; born November 3, 1933) is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history a ...

appointed him to the Superior Court in 1975, then to the Appeals Court in 1978. He served as an associate justice until 1984, when he became the Appeals Court's chief justice. In 1989, Greaney was appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court, where he served until his retirement in 2008. In his time on the bench, he wrote a well-known concurrence in

Goodridge v. Department of Public Health ''Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health'', 798 N.E.2d 941 (Mass. 2003), is a landmark Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court case in which the Court held that the Massachusetts Constitution requires the state to legally recognize same-sex marriage ...

. In 2008, Justice Greaney retired from the court and was appointed director of the Macaronis Institute for Trial and Appellate Advocacy at

in Boston.Denise Lavoie, Associated Press / November 30, 2008, Boston Globe, "Retiring SJC judge Greaney no shriking violet" http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/30/retiring_sjc_judge_greaney_no_shrinking_violet/

References

* Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Massachusetts Judicial Profile

1939 births Living people People from Westfield, Massachusetts College of the Holy Cross alumni New York University School of Law alumni Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Judges of the Massachusetts Appeals Court {{Massachusetts-state-judge-stub