Joseph Louis Tauro (; September 26, 1931 – November 30, 2018) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (in case citations, D. Mass.) is the United States district court, federal district court whose Jurisdiction (area), territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth (U.S. state), C ...

. He was the son of the late Massachusetts Chief Justice G. Joseph Tauro.

Education and career

Born in

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, in 1931, Tauro received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in 1953 and a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from

Cornell Law School Cornell Law School is the law school of Cornell University, a private university, private, Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. One of the five Ivy League law schools, Cornell Law School offers four degree programs (Juris Doctor, JD, Maste ...

in 1956. He was a First Lieutenant in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

from 1956 to 1958, and was an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gov ...

for the District of Massachusetts from 1959 to 1960. He was in private practice in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and Lynn, Massachusetts from 1960 to 1971. He was a chief legal counsel to the

Governor of Massachusetts The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The governor is the chief executive, head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonw ...

, John A. Volpe, from 1965 to 1968. He was the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for the District of Massachusetts in 1972.

Federal judicial service

On September 12, 1972, Tauro was nominated by President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Francis Ford. Tauro was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on October 12, 1972, and received his commission on October 17, 1972. He served as Chief Judge from 1992 to 1999. Tauro took senior status effective September 26, 2013, retaining approximately a 60% caseload with a focus on criminal cases. Until taking senior status, Tauro was the longest-serving active judge appointed by Nixon. Tauro died on November 30, 2018, at his home in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Notable cases

On July 8, 2010, in the cases of '' Gill v. Office of Personnel Management'' and '' Massachusetts v. United States Department of Health and Human Services'', Tauro issued decisions holding unconstitutional that part of the federal

Defense of Marriage Act The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on September 21, 1996. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limitin ...

that defined marriage "as a legal union exclusively between one man and one woman." Those decisions were affirmed by the

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (in case citations, 1st Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Maine * District of Massachusetts ...

, and certiorari was denied after the Supreme Court issued its opinion in ''

United States v. Windsor ''United States v. Windsor'', 570 U.S. 744 (2013), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case concerning same-sex marriage in the United States, same-sex marriage. The Cou ...

''.See Massachusetts v. U.S. Dep't of Health & Human Servs., 682 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2012) cert. denied, 133 S. Ct. 2884, 186 L. Ed. 2d 933 (U.S. 2013) and cert. denied, 133 S. Ct. 2887 (U.S. 2013) and cert. denied, 133 S. Ct. 2887 (U.S. 2013) In a lawsuit under NEPA involving possible radiations dangers from the original 1978 Pave Paws on Cape Cod he offered the plaintiffs a guided tour of the facility so they could see for themselves how "safe" it was.

References

Sources

* * ''Gill v. OPM'', 1:09-cv-10309-JLT, (D.Mass. July 8, 2010), at 38. Available a
online
* ''Mass. v. US Dept.'' Availabl
online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tauro, Joseph L. 1931 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges Assistant United States attorneys Brown University alumni Cornell Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts Lawyers from Boston Military personnel from Massachusetts People from Winchester, Massachusetts United States Army officers United States attorneys for the District of Massachusetts United States district court judges appointed by Richard Nixon

Education and career

Federal judicial service

Notable cases

See also

References

Sources