Judge Judge John Cronan
Southern New York U.S. District Court
John Peter Cronan was born in 1976 in Teaneck, New York. He earned his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and received his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. He clerked at the Southern New York U.S. District Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
He served ten years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and also served as Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Department of Justice Criminal Division. He was an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law.
President Donald Trump nominated Cronan to serve as a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. After a cloture vote, he was confirmed by the Senate and received his judicial commission in August 2020.
In the News…
U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan ruled that part of New York City’s gun restrictions that allows the denial of a firearms license if the applicant is not “of good moral character” is unconstitutional.
He said the “moral character” and “good cause for denial” give the licensing officials a “magnitude of discretion” and are unconstitutional under both the Second and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
“The constitutional infirmities identified herein lie not in the City’s decision to impose requirements for the possession of handguns, rifles, and shotguns,” he wrote. “Rather, the provisions fail to pass constitutional muster because of the magnitude of discretion afforded to City officials in denying an individual their constitutional right to keep and bear firearms, and because of Defendants’ failure to show that such unabridged discretion has any grounding in our Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
The regulation, he said, prevents “law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Judge Cronan today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable John P. Cronan
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse
500 Pearl St.
New York, NY 10007
