[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 14, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3867-S3868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                THE DEATH OF JUDGE VINCENT L. BRODERICK

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, New York and the Nation lost a most 
distinguished attorney, jurist, and public servant with the death on 
March 3 of the Honorable Vincent L. Broderick.
  Judge Broderick, or Vince as he was known to family and friends, was 
born in 1920 into a family with a long tradition of public service. His 
father, Joseph A. Broderick, was Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt's 
superintendent of banks, and was later appointed by President Roosevelt 
to the Federal Reserve 
[[Page S3868]] Board. His uncle, James Lyons, served as Bronx borough 
president for 20 years. I might add that this tradition continues among 
other members of the family: Judge Broderick's nephew, Christopher 
Finn, who was my administrative assistant here in the Senate from 1987 
to 1989, is now executive vice president of the Overseas Private 
Investment Corporation.
  As a young man, Vincent Broderick was a leader of the Young Democrats 
in the late 1940's. He was active in the presidential campaign of 
Robert F. Kennedy, and, after the assassination in 1968, in the 
campaign of Hubert Humphrey. In 1969, after briefly considering running 
for mayor of New York City, Mr. Broderick sought the nomination for 
city comptroller. He was defeated in the primary by Abraham Beame. He 
continued to be active in Democratic politics in New York, working on 
Senator George McGovern's presidential campaign in New York in 1972.
  Judge Broderick was the sort of uniquely able man who was called to 
duty by his Government again and again for the most difficult 
assignments. During World War II, he interrupted his studies at the 
Harvard Law School to enlist in the Army, where he served as a member 
of the amphibious engineers in the Pacific. He rose to the rank of 
captain before returning to law school, which he finished in 1948.
  After practicing law with the Wall Street law firm of Hatch, Root & 
Barrett in the 1950's, Vincent Broderick became deputy commissioner for 
legal matters of the New York City Police Department. He later served 
as general counsel of the National Association of Investment Companies 
before becoming chief assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district 
of New York.
  In 1965, Vincent Broderick was appointed police commissioner by New 
York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner. Running the Nation's largest police 
force in the Nation's largest city has always been an extremely 
difficult job, and never more so than in 1965, when New York City 
experienced a terrible blackout, a crippling transit strike, the first 
ever visit by a Pope--Paul VI--and a bitter dispute with Mayor John V. 
Lindsay over the handling of complaints against the police. Despite 
these challenges, Vincent Broderick excelled as police commissioner and 
became known as a leader who refused to tolerate excessive force or 
racial prejudice in his department.
  After returning to private practice for a time, Vince Broderick was 
nominated to the U.S. District Court for the southern district of New 
York by President Ford, where he further distinguished himself as a 
jurist of great wisdom and fairness. From 1990 to 1993, he served as 
chairman of the criminal law committee of the Judicial Conference of 
the United States. He remained active as a senior judge in the southern 
district until shortly before he died.
  Judge Vincent Broderick was a public man of singular accomplishments 
and abilities, a model public servant and model gentleman whose 
extraordinary career and accomplishments in government and the law will 
be studied and admired for many years to come.
  Mr. President, I commend to the attention of Senators Judge 
Broderick's obituary, which appeared last week in the New York Times, 
and I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the obituary was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:
                [From the New York Times, Mar. 7, 1995]

            V. L. Broderick, Judge and Police Head, 74, Dies

                        (By Lawrence Van Gelder)

       Judge Vincent L. Broderick, who was a senior judge on the 
     Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York 
     and who served as New York City Police Commissioner during 
     the tumultuous period of transition, died on Friday at the 
     Stanley R. Tippett Hospice in Needham, Mass. He was 74.
       Judge Broderick, who lived in Pelham Manor, N.Y., died of 
     cancer, said his daughter Kathleen Broderick Baird of 
     Needham.
       In the eight months after he was appointed Police 
     Commissioner by Mayor Robert F. Wagner in May 1865, Judge 
     Broderick led the police force through the blackout that 
     blanketed the Northeast, through the biggest transit strike 
     in the city's history, through the first visit to New York by 
     a Pope, Paul VI, and through a conflict with Mayor John V. 
     Lindsay over the creation of a civilian board to review 
     complaints against the police.
       Lean, calm and reflective, Judge Broderick was a relative 
     rarity in the ranks of commissioners--a man who had never 
     walked a beat. But he came from a background in law, law 
     enforcement and public service, having been deputy police 
     commissioner in charge of legal matters and, at the time of 
     his appointment as head of the 27,000-member force at the age 
     of 45, the chief assistant United States Attorney for the 
     Southern District of New York.
       ``Its a problem job,'' he said when Mayor Wagner named him 
     to fill the unexpired term of Michael J. Murphy. ``It always 
     has been a problem job, and it always will be. But I think I 
     have the capacity to handle it.''
       Judge Broderick wasted no time making clear where he stood. 
     In his first major appointment after assuming office, he 
     named a black captain, Eldridge Waith, to command the 32d 
     Precinct in Harlem. Two weeks later, at a time of racial 
     tensions throughout the country, Judge Broderick issued a 
     warning at a police officers' promotion ceremony:
       ``If you will tolerate in your men one attitude toward a 
     white citizen who speaks English, and a different attitude 
     toward another citizen, who is a Negro or speaks Spanish--get 
     out right now. You don't belong in a command position.
       ``If you will tolerate physical abuse by your men of any 
     citizen--get out right now. You don't belong in a command 
     position.
       ``If you do not realize the incendiary potential in a 
     racial slur, if you will tolerate from your men the racial 
     slur--get out right now.''
       In that same speech, Judge Broderick made clear where he 
     stood on the subject that prompted Mayor Lindsay to deny him 
     reappointment the following February: Judge Broderick opposed 
     a civilian review of the police. Recalling testimony he had 
     just given the City Council, he said, ``I opposed it on the 
     ground that we have civilian control of the Police 
     Department; that we have civilian review of citizens' 
     complaints; that outside review would dilute the quantum and 
     quality of discipline within the department, and that outside 
     review would impair the effectiveness of the police officer 
     in coping with crime on the streets.''
       On leaving the Police Department, Judge Broderick, a 
     Democrat, returned to the private practice of law until 1976, 
     when he was appointed to the Federal bench by President 
     Gerald R. Ford, a Republican.
       As a senior judge of the United States District Court for 
     the Southern District, he remained active until shortly 
     before his death. He presided over one of the longest 
     criminal trials in the Federal courts, an organized-crime 
     racketeering case that lasted more than 18 months. And, in a 
     ruling sustained by the Untied States Supreme Court that 
     resulted in new hiring practices by governments, he held for 
     the first time that political considerations had no place in 
     selecting personnel for nonpolitical government jobs.
       He served from 1990 to 1993 as chairman of the criminal law 
     committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, 
     the policy-making arm of the judiciary, a position from which 
     he led a fight to permit judicial flexibility in sentencing.
       In 1993, he told a House subcommittee that an inherent vice 
     of mandatory minimum sentences is that they are designed for 
     the most culpable criminal, but they capture many who are 
     considerably less culpable and who, on any test of fairness, 
     justice and proportionality, would not be ensnared. The 1994 
     crime bill incorporated his view by permitting departures 
     from the mandatory guidelines.
       Judge Broderick's father, Joseph, was Superintendent of 
     Banks for New York State and a governor of the Federal 
     Reserve Board. His brother Francis was a chancellor of the 
     University of Massachusetts in Boston.
       Judge Broderick, who grew up in the Washington Heights 
     section of Manhattan, graduated from Princeton in 1941, began 
     studies at Harvard Law School and then enlisted in the Army. 
     As a member of the amphibious engineers he served in Cape 
     Cod, New Guinea, the Philippines and postwar Japan before 
     leaving service with the rank of captain to resume his 
     studies at Harvard. He graduated in 1948.
       For the next six years, Judge Broderick practiced with the 
     Wall Street firm of Hatch, Root & Barrett. Then he was chosen 
     for the job of deputy commissioner for legal matters. After 
     two years, Judge Broderick left to become general counsel of 
     the National Association of Investment Companies.
       In 1961, Robert M. Morgenthau, then the United States 
     Attorney for the Southern District, named him chief 
     assistant, and he served as acting United States Attorney in 
     1962, when Mr. Morgenthau ran unsuccessfully for governor 
     against Nelson A. Rockefeller.
       In addition to his daughter Kathleen, Mr. Broderick is 
     survived by his wife, the former Sally Brine, of Pelham 
     Manor; three other daughters, Mary Broderick of East Lyme, 
     Conn., Ellen Broderick of East Chatham, N.Y., and Joan 
     Broderick of East Sandwich, Mass.; two sons, Vincent J. 
     Broderick of Westwood, Mass., and Justin Broderick of 
     Cambridge, Mass.; a brother, Joseph, of Chapel Hill, N.C., 
     and eight grandchildren.


     

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