Francis Xavier Morrissey (May 21, 1910 – December 27, 2007) was a Massachusetts attorney who served as a judge on the Boston Municipal Court from 1958 to 1980. Morrissey was John F. Kennedy's secretary when Kennedy served as a congressman and senator.
Because of his connection to Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 nominated Morrissey to be a judge on the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The American Bar Association rated Morrissey unqualified for the Federal judgeship. Questions were raised about Morrissey's honesty with the Senate about his resume and his legal education, which included a Georgia diploma mill law degree. After strong criticism from the bar and the press, Morrissey asked President Johnson to withdraw the nomination. The Boston Globe in 1966 won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its articles on Morrissey and his nomination to the Federal bench.
Early life
Morrissey was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 21, 1910. He was one of twelve children of a stevedore, Thomas Edward Morrissey, and his wife, Johanna Nora Powers. Morrissey graduated from Charlestown High School in Boston. From 1927 to 1928, he was a clerk for the Employers Liability Assurance Company in Boston. He began attending the Suffolk University Law School as a part-time student in 1927. After he failed four core classes, he left Suffolk in January 1932 without receiving a degree. Morrissey sat for the bar examination in Massachusetts in 1932 but did not pass. Morrissey was a clerk and teller at the Atlantic National Bank in Boston from 1928 to 1932.
Morrissey went to Georgia in the summer of 1933 and received a law degree from a diploma mill, the Southern Law School in Athens, Georgia. The school required no study to graduate, Morrissey told the Senate Judiciary Committee. At that time, Georgia admitted attorneys without taking a bar examination and attorneys could be licensed on diploma privilege. Morrissey was admitted to practice in the Clarke County circuit court on September 7, 1933, the day he received his diploma. The next day he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Georgia and the day after that in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The Georgia law allowing for the diploma privilege was repealed in 1933.
During his Senate nomination hearing, Morrissey was questioned about how long he had spent in Georgia practicing law and whether he had been truthful in his application to the bar in stating he was a resident of that state. This was an issue in part because in 1934 Morrissey had unsuccessfully run for the Massachusetts legislature, a candidacy that required residency in the state as of January 1, 1934. Yet Morrissey testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had lived in Georgia for at least six months after his graduation from the Southern Law School in September 1933. Morrissey finished twelfth of sixteen candidates in the September 20, 1934, primary for the Suffolk County Ward 2 seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, receiving 420 votes. Morrissey appeared in the 1933 and 1934 Boston city directories as living at 15 Prospect Street and working as a bank teller.
Morrissey was a social worker for the City of Boston from 1935 to 1938 when he joined the Massachusetts Department of Corrections in the same role. In June 1945, he was promoted to deputy commissioner of the Department of Corrections, serving until January 1947. During this same time, he was secretary to Governor Maurice J. Tobin.
While working for Governor Tobin, Morrissey met John F. Kennedy and his father, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, at party for General George S. Patton. Morrissey said he encouraged Kennedy to run for the 11th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and Morrissey worked on his successful 1946 election campaign. Kennedy hired Morrissey as his secretary in to run his congressional district office in Boston. When Kennedy was elected to the United States Senate in 1952, Morrissey continued to work for him in the Senate.
Morrissey left Kennedy's Senate office when he became judge of the Boston Municipal Court in July 1958. Governor Foster Furcolo appointed Morrissey a judge on the recommendation of Senator Kennedy. He took the place of Frank W. Tomasello, who Governor Furcolo had appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court.
Morrissey was appointed chairman of the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston in 1963 by Joseph P. McMurray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. He was reappointed in 1964 and 1965.
Considered for Federal judgeship
Senator Kennedy was elected president in 1960. On May 16, 1961, President Kennedy signed a law creating a seventy-three new Federal judgeships, including a district court judgeship in Massachusetts.,
Morrissey said of President Kennedy's father Joseph: "My association with him has been as intimate as any two men can conceivably have. Contrary to a popular misconception, Mr. Kennedy demanded–above everything else–loyalty and truth. He gave you equally as much in return. My admiration for him, for his keen intellect and for his brilliant mind knows no bounds." Ambassador Kennedy pressed for his son to nominate Morrissey to the new seat. Martin P. Nolan of The Boston Globe said Morrissey was “a very faithful retainer for Ambassador Kennedy.” William Chapman wrote in The Washington Post when the nomination was announced that it was “a cherished victory” for Ambassador Kennedy. The same article quoted an associate of President Kennedy saying that Morrissey “never let Joe Kennedy's coat hit the ground.” Reporter J. Anthony Lukas in his book on the Boston busing crisis, Common Ground, called Morrissey a “crony” of Ambassador Kennedy and “a ruddy-faced operator who knew his way around the seamy side of Boston politics” who was “Joe Kennedy's agent in his son's camp.” Morrissey “was a constant companion to” the elder Kennedy, “before and after his paralyzing stroke.”
Stories appeared in the press in 1961 stating President Kennedy was considering nominating Morrissey to be a federal judge. Robert F. Kennedy, the United States Attorney General, asked the American Bar Association for an informal review of Morrissey's qualifications for the Federal bench and was advised that the A.B.A. thought he was unqualified. When a formal report was requested on Morrissey, the A.B.A. came to the same conclusion. Albert Jenner, the chairman of the A.B.A.’s Committee on the Judiciary, in 1965 summed up the findings of the 1961 report: "Judge Morrissey was lacking in intellectual capacity to become an efficient judge of the U.S. District Court . . . . He was lacking in scholarship and legal knowledge; he lacked . . . legal experience, trial practice, and general practice of the law.". President Kennedy did not nominate Morrissey. As a consolation to Morrissey, Ambassador Kennedy offered to set up a substantial trust fund to benefit Morrissey's children.
Edward and Joan Kennedy vacationed on Capri with Morrissey and his wife in the summer of 1961. Morrissey accompanied Kennedy throughout Massachusetts in 1962 as part of his successful campaign for election to the Senate that year. Morrissey was one of only two people not members of the Kennedy family present at the August 1963 funeral of President Kennedy's son Patrick, the other being Cardinal Francis Spellman.
Nominated to the Federal bench
Morrissey told friends that just before his assassination President Kennedy had promised to nominate him to the Federal bench after the 1964 election. President Kennedy's brother Senator Edward M. Kennedy successfully lobbied President Johnson to make the nomination. Senator Kennedy told Burton Hersh that “Frank had a great desire to go on the federal court” and that Morrissey's wife “was very insistent” on the nomination. President Johnson nominated Morrissey on September 28, 1965. Senator Kennedy fought hard for Morrissey:
Robert F. Kennedy, elected a Senator from New York in 1964, also supported the nomination of Morrissey, who journalist and Kennedy friend Jack Newfield called “an unqualified family crony.” As attorney general, Robert Kennedy had asked Johnson to nominate Morrissey. Arthur M. Schlesinger wrote in his biography of Robert Kennedy that Johnson nominated Morrissey as a trap to embarrass both Edward and Robert Kennedy. Other observers doubted that. Schlesinger quoted Johnson as telling J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that he wanted a thorough investigation of Morrissey because “I don't want him to get that judgeship.”
The New York Times editorialized that Morrissey "has no visible qualifications except for a long, close friendship" with Ambassador Kennedy. "He has never had any private practice worth mentioning, having always made his living off minor political jobs. When he was appointed to a municipal judgeship in Boston several years ago, his legal qualifications for even that judicial post were questioned." A second Times editorial called him “preposterously unqualified” whose nomination advanced only because of the “familial arrogance” of the Kennedy family. Morrissey's nomination was “unconscionable,” said The New Republic, as “absolutely nothing is publicly known of Mr. Morrissey that remotely fits him for the federal bench.” The Christian Science Monitor editorialized against Morrissey, stating “his experience is far too limited.”The New York Herald-Tribune editorialized that the nomination was “nauseous.” Baltimore's The Sun asked in an editorial if the word for Morrissey was “liar” or “fibber.” Tom Wicker, writing in the Times, said “no one could seriously contend that he had any professional qualifications for a judgeship.” Morrissey did not even “r[i]se to the level of mediocrity,” wrote James Reston. Fellow columnist Marquis Childs said Morrissey was “obviously unqualified.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing in October 1965. Morrissey's nomination was endorsed by John McCormack, speaker of the United States House of Representatives; Jacob J. Spiegel, a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; and Cardinal Richard Cushing, Archbishop of Boston. Columnists Rowland Evans and Bob Novak wrote that Speaker McCormack offered his support not from enthusiasm over Morrissey but to get Ted Kennedy's support for McCormack's nephew Edward in his race to be elected governor of Massachusetts. Judge Charles Edward Wyzanski, who sat on the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, wrote the Judiciary Committee in opposition to Morrissey, saying he “has neither the familiarity with the law nor the industry to learn it.” The American Bar Association again found Morrissey unqualified to be a Federal judge. The Massachusetts Bar Association had twice found Morrissey to be unqualified before doing an about-face.
The A.B.A.’s Albert Jenner testified that an investigation of Morrissey could find almost no evidence that he had tried cases in state or Federal court or that he had briefed or argued appeals in Massachusetts. Under questioning from Senator Everett M. Dirksen, the Republican leader in the Senate, Morrissey admitted that his docket as municipal court judge was largely misdemeanor cases such as driving under the influence and small civil cases. His court also had no jurisdiction to hear jury cases. Morrissey was questioned about his 1933 Georgia diploma and law license. Morrissey also testified that he had attended an evening law school program at Boston College that was found not to have existed.