Hon. Lawrence

W. Pierce

Hon. Lawrence W. Pierce, Retired Federal Circuit Judge, Died Feb. 5, 2020

The Hon. Lawrence W. Pierce, retired federal circuit judge, died on Feb. 5, 2020, at home in Boca Raton, Fla. He recently celebrated his 95th birthday, surrounded by his sons, their spouses, many of their children, and several other family members.

Judge Pierce served on federal courts for 24 years. He was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1971 by President Richard Nixon, on the recommendation of Governor Nelson Rockefeller. In 1981, Judge Pierce was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President Ronald Regan, becoming only the third African American to serve on the court. He served there for 14 years. He was among the first group of judges, and the only African American, appointed to the newly created U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1979. Judge Pierce served simultaneously on that bench until 1981.

Judge Pierce's numerous opinions as an appellate judge included an affirmation of most of the convictions in the Pizza Connection drug-trafficking case and an affirmation of the insider-trading conviction of a writer for The Wall Street Journal in the landmark U.S. v. Winans case. Judge Pierce's decision in the latter case relied on the misappropriation theory. His decision stood after the U.S. Supreme Court split 4-4 in its review of the case, and, later, the high court adopted the theory in its 1997 decision in U.S. v. O'Hagan.

In his early years on the bench, Judge Pierce struck down as unconstitutional a New York City ordinance that required the display of the flag as a condition of making a public address, reasoning such a condition was the same as requiring a newspaper to carry an imprint of the flag as a condition of publication. Notwithstanding this ruling, he was a frequent participant in the annual Flag Day celebration sponsored by the Sons of the Revolution at Fraunces Tavern.

Prior to his service on the bench, Judge Pierce held numerous criminal law positions in New York: staff attorney in the civil branch of the Legal Aid Society (1951-1954), assistant district attorney for Kings County (1954-1961), deputy commissioner of the New York City Police Department (1961-1963), director of the New York State Division of Youth (1963-1966), founding chairman of the New York State Narcotic Addiction Control Commission (1966-1970), and visiting professor of criminal law at the Graduate School of Criminal Justice of the State University of New York at Albany (1970-1971).

Judge Pierce was a U.S. Delegate to the Third United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1965, and to the Fourth UN Congress in Kyoto, Japan, in 1970. He served as a member of the U.S. Secretary of the Army's Special Civilian Committee for the Study of the United States Army Confinement System. In later years, Judge Pierce led delegations to study criminal justice in China, Japan, South Africa, Sweden, and Vietnam. In 1995, he spent six months in Cambodia as director of a court training project for judges and prosecutors sponsored by the International Human Rights Law Group and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Judge Pierce served in several roles for the American Bar Association, including alternate observer to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, member of the ABA Commission on Correctional Services and Facilities, and member of ABA site teams evaluating law schools for U.S. accreditation purposes.

He was a member of the Committee for the Second Century at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. For 10 years, he chaired the History Committee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He also chaired the Second Circuit's Bicentennial Committee at the Foley Square Courthouse.

Judge Pierce was a member of the Board of Fellows of the Institute of Judicial Administration and the Board of Trustees of the Practising Law Institute. He was a member of the American Bar Association Committee on World Order Under Law, American Law Institute, and National Bar Association. He also was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Asked to identify the most significant civic association of his life, Judge Pierce singled out his working relationship with Jesuit Priest John LaFarge, founder of a network of interracial councils that later merged to become the National Catholic Conference on Interracial Justice. From 1950 to 1960, Judge Pierce first served as president of the Catholic Interracial Council of Brooklyn and then served as president of the Catholic Interracial Council of New York. He also was an active member of the Brooklyn Advisory Committee of the Urban League of Greater New York.

Judge Pierce was a lifetime member and former officer of the Sons of the Revolution. He also was a former board member of the Sons of the American Revolution. His Black forbearer Adam Pierce served in the Second New Jersey Regiment during the American Revolution and participated in the Battles of Monmouth and Crosswicks.

Judge Pierce served on the Board of Directors of CARE USA, the Board of Trustees of Fordham University, the Board of Managers of Lincoln Hall for Boys, the Board of Trustees of Saint Joseph's University, and the Board of Managers of The Havens Relief Fund Society. He was a member of the 369 ^th Veterans Association and the Black Revolutionary War Patriots. He was a founding member of 100 Black Men and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Alpha Sigma Nu National Jesuit Honor Society.

Judge Pierce was born in Philadelphia, Pa., on December 31, 1924, to Harold Pierce Sr. and the former Leora Bellinger. His mother passed away when he was four, and he was raised by his stepmother Violet Abrams Pierce and his grandparents. He graduated from St. Thomas More High School in 1942 and entered Saint Joseph's College in Philadelphia that same year. A year later, he put college on hold to serve as a sergeant with the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy during World War II. He was honorably discharged three years later and returned to Saint Joseph's, graduating cum laude with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1948 – the university's first Black graduate. In 1951, he received his J.D. from Fordham Law School, where he served as associate editor of The Fordham Law Review .

He later received honorary degrees from Fairfield University, Fordham, Hamilton College, Saint Joseph's, and St. John's University. He received the Fordham Law Alumni Association's Medal of Achievement, the association's highest honor; the Life of Commitment Award from Fordham Law School's Feerick Center for Social Justice; and the Ruth Whitehead Whaley Award from the Fordham Black Law Students. He received the Shield of Loyola, the highest honor presented to a Saint Joseph's alumni.

Over the course of his life, Judge Pierce resided in Boca Raton, Fla.; Sag Harbor, N.Y.; New York City; Canaan, N.Y.; Philadelphia; and Bridgeton, N.J. His interests included sailing, gardening, reading, and travel. He was a parishioner of Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Bridgehampton, N.Y.

Judge Pierce's late wife, the former Cynthia Straker, a retired law professor at St. John's University School of Law, passed away in 2011. His first wife, the former Wilma Taylor, passed in 1978. He is survived by three sons and their spouses: Warren and Carla, Michael and Debra, and Mark and Khuyen; six grandchildren; one great grandchild; a cousin, Elaine Dart Barnes, with whom he was raised; several devoted nieces and nephews; and many close friends, colleagues, and former law clerks.

A wake will be held Thursday, Feb. 13, from 6-8 p.m., in Sag Harbor, N.Y., at Yardley & Pino Funeral Home. A funeral mass will take place Friday, Feb. 14, at 11:30 a.m., at Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Bridgehampton, N.Y.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to:

Hon. Lawrence W. Pierce Scholarship

Fordham University School of Law
Office of Development
150 West 62nd Street, 8th Floor

New York, NY 10023

(212) 636-6529

In memory of Hon. Lawrence W. Pierce

Saint Joseph's University

Office of Development

5600 City Ave.

Philadelphia, PA 19131

(610) 660-1000

Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry

44 E. Union St.

Sag Harbor, NY 11963

(631) 725-0437