Martin Joseph "Mart" O'Malley (September 17, 1890 – September 9, 1972) was a justice of the

Indiana Supreme Court The Indiana Supreme Court, established by Article 7 of the Indiana Constitution, is the highest judicial authority in the state of Indiana. Located in Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis, the Court's chambers are in the north wing of the Indiana ...

from January 4, 1943, to January 3, 1949. Born in

Pittston, Pennsylvania Pittston is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated between Scranton, Pennsylvania, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Wilkes-Barre in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The city gained prominence in the late 19th an ...

, O'Malley was one of eleven siblings, and as a child had to drop out of school to work in a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

.David J. Remondini, "Martin J. O'Malley", in Linda C. Gugin, James E. St. Clair, ''Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court'' (2010), p. 299-302. Nevertheless, and without a high school education, he was able to attend Saint Thomas College in

Scranton Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...

from 1910 to 1912, and received an LL.B. from

Valparaiso University School of Law The Valparaiso University Law School was the law school of Valparaiso University, a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana. Founded in 1879, the school was accredited by the American Bar Association in 1929 and admitted to the Association of Am ...

in 1915.Minde C. Browning, Richard Humphrey, and Bruce Kleinschmidt,
Biographical Sketches of Indiana Supreme Court Justices
, ''

Indiana Law Review The Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law (IU McKinney) is located on the campus of Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in Indianapolis, Indiana, the urban campus of Indiana University. In the summer of 200 ...

'', Vol. 30, No. 1 (1997), section reproduced i
Indiana Courts Justice Biographies page
He practiced law intermittently in Huntington, Indiana, from 1922 to 1965, at one point defending humorist H. Allen Smith from an obscenity charge arising from Smith's authorship of a risque article. O'Malley served as Huntington County Attorney from 1930 to 1933, and as Huntington City Attorney from 1939 to 1943, during which time he became heavily involved in the Republican Party, supporting the candidacy of

Wendell Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican ...

in the

1940 United States presidential election The 1940 United States presidential election was the 39th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1940. Incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican businessman Wendell Willkie to be re ...

. O'Malley was elected to the Indiana Supreme Court as a Republican in 1942, a strong year for Republicans in Indiana, in his first effort to obtain political office. He was defeated for re-election by Democratic challenger Paul G. Jasper in 1948, a strong year for Democrats. O'Malley's term ended in 1949. Following his defeat, O'Malley returned to the private practice of law, forming the law firm of O'Malley and Brown. O'Malley served on various boards and committees, and again served as Huntington City Attorney from 1955 to 1956, and retired to

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

. He died in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

, after falling ill while visiting his son there.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OMalley, Mart Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court 1890 births 1972 deaths University of Scranton alumni Valparaiso University School of Law alumni 20th-century American judges