Richard J. Cardamone

Richard Joseph Cardamone was a United States circuit judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1981 to 1993. Born in Utica, New York, in 1925, he brought to the federal bench nearly two decades of prior judicial experience on the New York State Supreme Court. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, Cardamone served as an active circuit judge for twelve years before assuming senior status in 1993, continuing to contribute to the Second Circuit's work until his death in 2015. His judicial career spanned more than half a century, encompassing state trial court service, federal appellate work, and senior status service that extended over two additional decades.

Early life and legal career

Richard Joseph Cardamone was born on October 10, 1925, in Utica, New York, a city in the Mohawk Valley region of upstate New York. His early adulthood was shaped by World War II; he served in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946, a period that encompassed the final years of the war and the immediate postwar period. Following his military service, Cardamone pursued higher education, enrolling at Harvard University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948. He then attended Syracuse University College of Law, receiving his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1952, at a time when the LL.B. was the standard first professional degree in law in the United States.

After completing his legal education, Cardamone returned to his hometown of Utica to enter private practice. For a decade, from 1952 to 1962, he practiced law in the community where he had been raised, building a legal career and establishing himself within the local legal community. This period of private practice provided him with practical experience in the law and familiarity with the concerns of clients and the workings of the legal system from the perspective of an advocate. His work during these years laid the foundation for his subsequent transition to the judiciary.

In 1962, Cardamone's career took a significant turn when he successfully ran for election to the New York State Supreme Court. Despite its name, the New York State Supreme Court is a trial-level court of general jurisdiction rather than the state's highest court. Cardamone began his service as a Justice of the Supreme Court in 1963, embarking on what would become an eighteen-year tenure on the state bench. During this extended period of judicial service at the state level, he presided over a wide range of civil and criminal matters, gaining substantial experience as a trial judge. His years on the New York State Supreme Court provided him with a deep understanding of both state law and the practical aspects of trial court proceedings, experience that would inform his later work on the federal appellate bench.

Federal appellate service

Cardamone's elevation to the federal judiciary came in 1981, when President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, nominated him to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The nomination was made on October 1, 1981, to fill a vacancy that had been created by the departure of Judge William Hughes Mulligan. The Second Circuit, which has jurisdiction over federal appeals arising from the district courts in New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, is one of the most prominent and influential of the thirteen federal courts of appeals. The United States Senate confirmed Cardamone's nomination on October 29, 1981, and he received his commission the same day, allowing him to begin his service on the court immediately.

As a circuit judge, Cardamone served in active status for twelve years, participating in the Second Circuit's work of reviewing appeals from the district courts within its jurisdiction and from various federal administrative agencies. The Second Circuit hears thousands of appeals each year, covering the full spectrum of federal law, including constitutional questions, federal statutory interpretation, criminal appeals, civil rights matters, immigration cases, and complex commercial disputes. During his active service from 1981 to 1993, Cardamone contributed to this substantial caseload as a member of the three-judge panels that typically hear and decide appeals in the federal circuit courts.

On November 13, 1993, Cardamone assumed senior status, a form of semi-retirement available to federal judges who meet certain age and service requirements. Senior status allowed him to continue hearing cases and writing opinions while carrying a reduced caseload, and it created a vacancy that enabled the appointment of an additional active judge to the court. Cardamone remained active in senior status for more than two decades, continuing to participate in the Second Circuit's work well into the twenty-first century. This extended period of senior service meant that his total contribution to the federal judiciary spanned more than three decades.

Jurisprudence and legacy

Cardamone's written opinions reflected both careful legal analysis and, at times, a distinctive literary sensibility. In one notable case from 2006, Demoret v. Zegarelli, he opened his opinion by drawing attention to the fact that one of the defendants was the Village of Sleepy Hollow, a municipality in Westchester County, New York, located along the Hudson River. Cardamone used the opportunity to reference Washington Irving's famous short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," noting the literary associations evoked by the village's name and mentioning the fictional characters of the Headless Horseman, Ichabod Crane, and Katrina Van Tassel. He observed that while the legend involved a ghostly horseman who frightened the schoolmaster Ichabod Crane out of town, the case before the court concerned a different kind of conflict: allegations of discriminatory treatment faced by two female employees of the village. This literary opening demonstrated an approach to opinion writing that acknowledged cultural context while addressing serious legal questions.

Among the significant cases Cardamone decided was an appeal involving Westway, a controversial proposed highway project planned for the West Side of Manhattan. Cardamone wrote the appellate opinion that affirmed a district court decision by Judge Thomas P. Griesa, which had invalidated a permit issued by the United States Army Corps of Engineers for the highway project. The Westway controversy was one of the most contentious urban planning and environmental disputes in New York City during the late twentieth century, involving questions of environmental review, federal permitting authority, and competing visions for the city's waterfront. Cardamone's decision in this matter contributed to the ultimate abandonment of the highway project.

Richard Joseph Cardamone died on October 16, 2015, just days after his ninetieth birthday. His death marked the end of a judicial career that had begun more than half a century earlier with his election to the New York State Supreme Court in 1962. Over the course of his career, he served at both the state and federal levels, contributing to the development of law through his trial court work and his decades of appellate decision-making on the Second Circuit.