Paul Julian Liacos (November 20, 1929 – May 6, 1999) was the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1989 to 1996.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The SJC claims the distinction of being the oldest continuously functioning appellate court in the Americas, with a recognized history dating to the establishment of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature in 1692 under the charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania disputes this, claiming to be eight years older.
He was born in Peabody, Massachusetts to James and Pitsa Liacos, Greek immigrants. His father started out in the mills of New Hampshire and the leather factories of Peabody, but eventually became the first Greek-born lawyer in Massachusetts after working his way through law school in a leather factory. Liacos had a sister, Katherine Liacos Izzo, herself a lawyer whom Governor Michael Dukakis appointed to the state Superior Court.
Peabody is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 51,251 at the 2010 census, and in 2016 the estimated population was 52,491. Peabody is located in the North Shore region of Massachusetts, and is known for its rich industrial history.
The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world.
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. New Hampshire is the 5th smallest by area and the 10th least populous of the 50 states. Concord is the state capital, while Manchester is the largest city in the state. It has no general sales tax, nor is personal income taxed at either the state or local level. The New Hampshire primary is the first primary in the U.S. presidential election cycle. Its license plates carry the state motto, "Live Free or Die". The state's nickname, "The Granite State", refers to its extensive granite formations and quarries.
Liacos graduated from high school at 16, earned his undergraduate degree from Boston University in 1950, and was admitted to the bar in 1952. By the following year, he had earned a master's degree in law from Harvard University. He taught for over two decades at Boston University. For three years in the mid-1950s, he served in the US Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps. He then returned to the BU law faculty in 1957 and the family practice, Liacos & Liacos, where he spent some 25 years. In 1954, he married Maureen G. McKean, and they had three sons (James, Mark, and Gregory) and a daughter, Diana.
Boston University is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has been historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with about 6,700 undergraduate students and about 15,250 postgraduate students. Established in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, clergyman John Harvard, Harvard is the United States' oldest institution of higher learning, and its history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the world's most prestigious universities.
Liacos was still a professor when Governor Michael Dukakis named him to the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) in 1976. He wrote a number of scholarly works, mainly in the area of criminal law, among them the definitive Handbook of Massachusetts Evidence. His written court decisions (of which there were 800) reflected a concern for individual rights – he was the court's liberal anchor and defender of civil liberties. Dukakis named him Chief Justice in 1989. During his seven years as Chief Justice, the court found that the death penalty violated the Massachusetts Constitution and broadened protections for women seeking abortions and for defendants' rights against search and seizure.
Michael Stanley Dukakis is a retired American politician who served as the 65th Governor of Massachusetts, from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and only the second Greek-American governor in U.S. history, after Spiro Agnew. He was nominated by the Democratic Party for president in the 1988 election, losing to the Republican candidate, Vice President George H. W. Bush.
Civil liberties or personal freedoms are personal guarantees and freedoms that the government cannot abridge, either by law or by judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may include the freedom of conscience, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to security and liberty, freedom of speech, the right to privacy, the right to equal treatment under the law and due process, the right to a fair trial, and the right to life. Other civil liberties include the right to own property, the right to defend oneself, and the right to bodily integrity. Within the distinctions between civil liberties and other types of liberty, distinctions exist between positive liberty/positive rights and negative liberty/negative rights.
Liacos retired three years before the mandatory retirement age of 70. At the time, he said he wanted to spend more time with his family; he also wanted to give his successor, Justice Herbert P. Wilkins, an easier transition in the face of three retirements scheduled before 2000. In 1998, he was sworn in as a member of the State Ethics Commission. He died at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Herbert P. Wilkins served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1996 to 1999, a position his father, Raymond Sanger Wilkins, held from 1956 to 1970.
Massachusetts General Hospital is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and a biomedical research facility located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United States. With Brigham and Women's Hospital, it is one of the two founding members of Partners HealthCare, the largest healthcare provider in Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Hospital conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the world, with an annual research budget of more than $900 million. It is currently ranked as the #4 hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.
