Joseph McLaughlin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a longtime federal judge who was born of working-class roots in Brooklyn, nurtured in the Jesuit academic tradition and renowned for his scholarship, wit and compassion, died Thursday after a brief bout with pneumonia. He was 80.
McLaughlin went from academia to the federal judiciary in 1981, despite a lack of political connections and no party affiliation, when President Ronald Reagan nominated the then-dean of Fordham University School of Law for a slot on the Eastern District bench. Nine years later, he was elevated to the Second Circuit by President George H.W. Bush.
