John Thomas Curtin (August 24, 1921 – April 14, 2017) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York from 1967 to 2017 and its Chief Judge from 1974 to 1989.
John Thomas Curtin
New York Western District Court
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York
Born 1921 in Buffalo, NY
Died 2017
FJC ID: 546
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 13/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 38/year
New York Western District Court · 1967–2017
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- White
Prior employment
- Judicial Conference of the United StatesMember · 1986–1989
U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York1961–1967- Private practice, Buffalo, New York1949–1961
U.S. Marine Corps Reserve1952–1954- U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel1942–1945
Appointments
1967–2017 · Appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson (Democratic)Term ended: Death
Education
- University of Buffalo Law SchoolLL.B. · 1949
- Canisius CollegeB.S. · 1946