Thomas E. Delahanty II (June 6, 1945 – April 12, 2021) was an American lawyer and former judge. He was the former

United States Attorney for the District of Maine The U.S. District Court for the District of Maine (in case citations, D. Me.) is the U.S. district court for the state of Maine. The District of Maine was one of the original thirteen district courts established by the Judiciary Act of 17 ...

Early life and education

Delahanty was a graduate of

Saint Michael's College Saint Michael's College (St. Mikes or Saint Michael's) is a private Roman Catholic college in Colchester, Vermont. Saint Michael's was founded in 1904 by the Society of Saint Edmund. It grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees i ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

in 1967 and the University of Maine School of Law in 1970.

Career

From 1970 to 1974, Delahanty was an associate at Marshall, Raymond & Beliveau; County Attorney and Assistant County Attorney with the

Androscoggin County Androscoggin County (French: ''Comté d'Androscoggin'') is a county in the U.S. state of Maine. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 111,139. Its county seat is Auburn and its largest city is Lewiston. Androscoggin County compris ...

Attorney's Office (1971 to 1975); and a

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

for Prosecutorial District 3 for Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford Counties (1975 to 1980). Delahanty held the U.S. Attorney position from 1980 to 1981 under President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

after

George J. Mitchell George John Mitchell Jr. (born August 20, 1933) is an American politician, diplomat, and lawyer. A leading member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator from Maine from 1980 to 1995, and as Senate Majority Leader from 198 ...

was appointed to a judicial position. From 1981 to 1983, Delahanty was a partner in the firm Delahanty & Longley with

James B. Longley Jr. James Bernard Longley Jr. (born July 7, 1951) is an American politician from Maine. A U.S. Republican Party, Republican, he served one term in the United States House of Representatives representing Maine's 1st congressional district, Maine's 1st ...

. In 1983, Delahanty was appointed to

Maine Superior Court The Maine Superior Court is the trial court of general jurisdiction in the Maine state court system. All state jury trials are held in the Superior Court. The court is located in each of Maine's 16 counties (with two locations in Aroostook Count ...

where he served from November 4, 1983, to June 30, 2010. He served as chief justice from 1990 until 1995. Delahanty was nominated by U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

on March 10, 2010, appointed on June 23, 2010, and was sworn into office on July 1, 2010. Delahanty was the fifth person to serve two terms as U.S. Attorney for Maine. In January 2014, Delahanty was appointed by

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Eric Holder to the Attorney General's Advisory Committee (AGAC), where he was the committee's chairperson of the AGAC Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture Working Group. Delahanty was also a member of both the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Working Group and the Northern Border Initiative Subcommittee. Delahanty remained a U.S. Attorney until the 2017 dismissal of U.S. attorneys on March 10, 2017. He was out of state on vacation with his family when he received the news. Along with fellow former U.S. Attorney Michael W. Cotter, he released his resignation letter to the public after the Justice Department refused to do so citing an exemption to the

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

. Following his dismissal, he returned to the Maine Superior Court as an active retired justice.

Personal life

Delahanty's father,

Thomas E. Delahanty Thomas E. Delahanty (July 26, 1914 – February 4, 1985) was a justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He was appointed to the position on September 5, 1973 and later served as active retired from August 31, 1979 until his death. Early ...

, and cousin, Robert W. Clifford, are or have also been judges in Maine. His maternal grandfather,

John David Clifford, Jr. John David Clifford Jr. (May 15, 1887 – November 18, 1956) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maine. Education and career Born in Lewiston, Maine, Clifford received an Artium Baccalau ...

, was a judge and also previously held the United States Attorney position. His great-grandfather was

John M. C. Smith John M. C. Smith (February 6, 1853 – March 30, 1923) was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. He served as U.S. Representative from Michigan's 3rd congressional district. Biography Smith was born in 1853 in Belfast on the Ireland, ...

, a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from Michigan's 3rd congressional district. Delahanty had been married since 1970 and had two sons, a granddaughter, and a grandson. Delahanty died at his home on April 12, 2021, after a battle with

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Delahanty, Thomas E. Maine state court judges 21st-century American judges 20th-century American judges 21st-century American lawyers 20th-century American lawyers United States Attorneys for the District of Maine University of Maine School of Law alumni Saint Michael's College alumni 2021 deaths 1945 births People from Lewiston, Maine

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

See also

References