Frank M. Gaziano (born September 8, 1963) is an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Early life and education

Born in Quincy, Massachusetts, Gaziano received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

from

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

in 1986 and his Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School in 1989. He began his legal career at the Boston law firm of

Foley Hoag Foley Hoag LLP (formerly Foley, Hoag & Eliot LLP) is a law firm headquartered in Boston, with additional offices in New York City, Paris, and Washington, D.C. The firm represents public and private clients in a wide range of disputes and transacti ...

as a litigation associate. In 1991, he entered public service as an assistant district attorney with the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office in Brockton. In 2001, he was appointed the First Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, where he was a member of the Organized Crime Strike Force.

Judicial service

Gaziano was previously an associate justice for the

Massachusetts Superior Court The Massachusetts Superior Court (also known as the Superior Court Department of the Trial Court) is a trial court department in Massachusetts. The Superior Court has original jurisdiction in civil actions over $50,000, and in matters where equit ...

. He was nominated to the court by Governor Mitt Romney in 2004. He served as the Regional Administrative Justice for Plymouth County and for Criminal Business in Suffolk County. He also chaired the Supreme Judicial Court's Standing Committee on Criminal Rules and was a member of the Supreme Judicial Court's Model Homicide Jury Instruction Committee.

Supreme Judicial Court

Gaziano was nominated to the Supreme Judicial Court by Governor

Charlie Baker Charles Duane Baker Jr. (born November 13, 1956) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 72nd governor of Massachusetts since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Baker was a cabinet official under two governors of Massach ...

on June 14, 2016, and confirmed by the Governor's Council on July 13, 2016. He succeeded Justice

Francis X. Spina Francis X. Spina (born November 13, 1946) is a former Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Biography Justice Spina graduated from Amherst College and Boston College Law School. He worked for Western Massachusetts Legal S ...

, who retired on August 12, 2016.

Notable Cases

In April 2020, Gaziano wrote for the unanimous court when it found that warrantless use of

automatic number-plate recognition Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit tel ...

cameras to surveil a suspected heroin distributor's bridge crossings to

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

was not an unconstitutional search because of the limited time and scope of the observations. In February 2022, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a criminal defendant lacked a

reasonable expectation of privacy Expectation of privacy is a legal test which is crucial in defining the scope of the applicability of the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is related to, but is not the same as, a ''right to privac ...

in a Snapchat story he shared with an

undercover To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an ind ...

Boston police officer, who friended the defendant using a pseudonym and then used the clip to charge him in an illegal gun case. Writing for the court, Gaziano said that requiring police officers to always identify themselves would render "virtually all undercover work" unconstitutional.

References

External links

Official Biography on Supreme Court website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaziano, Frank M. 1963 births Living people Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Massachusetts state court judges People from Quincy, Massachusetts Lafayette College alumni Suffolk University Law School alumni 21st-century American judges Massachusetts Democrats Massachusetts lawyers