death_date death_place birth_place nationality party office birth_date term_start article_title term_end nominator alma_mater
26 july 1955 playing golf in connecticut new york city american republican party -lrb- united states -rrb- united new york states district court for the southern district of may 4 , 1876 1923 henry w. goddard
 1954 president warren g. harding new york law school
henry w. goddard

henry warren goddard -lrb- may 4 , 1876 -- august 26 , 1955 -rrb- was a longtime federal judge in new york city .
born in new york , goddard graduated from new york law school in 1901 .
from 1901 to 1923 , he worked as a lawyer in private practise in manhattan and became active in republican politics .
in 1923 , president warren g. harding appointed goddard as a judge of the united states district court for the southern district of new york , filling a newly created seat on the court .
goddard served as an active judge until 1954 .
goddard 's caseload varied during his 31 years on the bench .
civil cases heard by goddard included a 1929 suit filed by anne nichols against universal pictures , alleging that the screenplay for the film `` the cohens and kellys '' was plagiarized from nichols ' broadway play `` abie 's irish rose '' .
goddard 's conclusion that there had been no copyright infringement was affirmed by the united states court of appeals for the second circuit in an opinion by learned hand .
goddard also ruled on the invasion-of-privacy case that william james sidis filed against `` the new yorker '' magazine , based on an article written by james thurber ; goddard 's decision to dismiss that case was affirmed by the second circuit in a widely cited ruling .
in still another case involving media issues , goddard signed a consent decree in 1940 ending the practice of block booking of motion pictures into theatres .
in 1948 , goddard presided over the case of danny gardella , who challenged the antitrust exemption for major league baseball in a dispute arising from his attempt to return to the major leagues after having played a season in the mexican league .
in criminal matters , goddard was best known as the judge who presided over the second perjury trial of alger hiss , in 1949 and 1950 , after hiss 's earlier trial before judge samuel kaufman resulted in a hung jury .
goddard was more lenient in his evidentiary rulings than kaufman had been , allowing both prosecutor thomas murphy and hiss 's counsel , claude cross , to elicit testimony that kaufman had excluded , including the opinion of a psychiatrist who had examined the government 's key witness , whittaker chambers .
hiss was convicted at the second trial , and goddard sentenced him to five years in federal prison .
in 1952 , hiss moved for a retrial based on newly discovered evidence relating to the typewriter on which certain incriminating documents had been typed .
goddard denied the motion , finding that hiss failed to establish that he would probably have been acquitted had the new evidence been presented to the jury .
goddard also presided over other criminal cases ranging from violations of prohibition in the 1920s , to espionage charges against german and german-american defendants , including anthony cramer , during world war ii .
off the bench , goddard was heavily involved in charity work on behalf of the blind , including appeals for public support for the lighthouse .
in 1954 , goddard retired as a full-time judge and took senior status on the southern district bench .
he died one year later , while playing golf at a country club near his summer house in connecticut .
