Matthew M. Levy

Matthew Malitz Levy (March 1, 1899 – September 4, 1971) was a Polish-born Jewish American lawyer, politician and judge who served as a justice of the New York Supreme Court from 1951 until his death in 1971. He previously served as a special assistant attorney general in 1927 and 1937, then was appointed a judge of the New York City Municipal Court by mayor Fiorello La Guardia, serving in 1938.

Biography

Matthew Malitz Levy was born on March 1, 1899, in Brest-Litovsk, Congress Poland, the fourth of eight children. He emigrated with his family to the United States in 1903, settling in Savannah, Georgia. He first became interested in the law as a youth, skipping school to go to the courthouse and watch Confederate veteran and judge Peter Meldrim. After graduating high school, he enrolled in the University of Georgia, but paused his studies to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War I. Upon returning home, he earned degrees from Georgia in 1919 and Harvard Law School in 1922 before moving to New York City, where he met his wife Pearl Gold Spivak.

Levy settled in the Bronx, where he worked as a labor lawyer and became law partners with former Socialist judge Jacob Panken. He left the party to join the Social Democratic Federation and the American Labor Party in 1936, standing as the ALP candidate for New York City Municipal Court in 1938, Bronx Borough President in 1941, and Supreme Court in 1943. He was finally elected to the Supreme Court in 1950, running on a joint Liberal-Democratic ticket. He was re-elected in 1964, serving until his death in 1971, just months before he was set to retire. In 1958, the Harvard Law Record named him "Scholar on the Bench."