[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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