Nominated by Harry S. Truman Name Harold Medina Preceded by Learned Hand Role Judge | Nominated by Harry S. Truman Succeeded by Henry Friendly Preceded by Samuel Mandelbaum | |
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Full Name Harold Raymond Medina Born February 16, 1888
Brooklyn, New York ( 1888-02-16 ) Died March 14, 1990, Westwood, New Jersey, United States Books Freedom of the Press and Fair Trial: Final Report with Recommendations Education Columbia Law School, Elizabethtown College, Princeton University | ||
Harold Raymond Medina Sr. (February 16, 1888 – March 14, 1990) was an American lawyer, teacher and judge who is most noted for hearing landmark cases of conspiracy and treason.
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A resident of a nursing home in Westwood, New Jersey, Medina died in 1990 at the age of 102 at Pascack Valley Hospital.
Early life
Medina was born in Brooklyn, New York to Joaquin Adolfo Medina and Elizabeth Fash Medina. His father was a naturalized United States citizen from Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, and his mother from New York City of Dutch ancestry. Medina graduated from Holbrook Military Academy in Ossining, New York in 1905. After high school, he attended Princeton University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with an A.B. degree in 1909. He received a L.L.B. degree from Columbia Law School, where he graduated as co-head of his class in 1912. He married Ethel Forde Hillyer in 1911.
Early career
In 1912, Medina founded a private practice as an attorney in New York City, which he ran until asked to join government in 1947 as a judge. Concurrently, he founded and ran the "Medina Bar Review Course" (1912–1942). In addition, he was an associate professor at Columbia Law School (1915-1940).
Judicial career
In 1947 President Harry S. Truman nominated Medina to serve as a federal judge in the Southern District of New York. In 1949, he presided over the trial of 11 leaders of the U.S. Communist Party charged with advocating the violent overthrow of the government. This was known as Foley Square trial. In this case, the jury found all the defendants guilty, and Medina sentenced most of them to five years in prison. He also gave prison sentences to five of the defense attorneys on charges of contempt of court; among them was George William Crockett Jr., who later became a Member of Congress.
Medina presided over the year-long Investment Bankers Case in 1951-1952, an antitrust case against 17 of the most prominent Wall Street investment banking firms, known as the Wall Street Seventeen. He ruled in favor of the investment banks.
Medina succeeded Learned Hand on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1953 and served on it until 1980, when (at age 92) he was the oldest judge still serving on the federal bench. He achieved senior status in 1958.
Other honors
Medina was featured on the cover of the October 24, 1949, edition of Time Magazine. [1]
In 1957, Medina received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Elizabethtown College located in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. (Source: 1957 Conestogan Yearbook, Elizabethtown College)
J. Woodford Howard, Jr., professor of political science emeritus at The Johns Hopkins University, along with Professor Patrick Schmidt of Macalester College and Professor David Yalof of the University of Connecticut, are currently completing an authorized biography of Medina.
The Harold R. Medina Professorship of Procedural Jurisprudence at Columbia University School of Law is named in Judge Medina's honor.