The Higher Education of the New Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick recently appointed Roderick L. Ireland to serve as chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He has been serving as senior associate justice of the court. He will be the first African American in state history to serve as chief justice. When he was named to the court in 1997, he was the first African American to serve as a Supreme Court justice in the court’s 300-year history.

A native of Springfield, Massachusetts, Dr. Ireland is a 1966 graduate of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He earned his law degree at Columbia University. He later earned a master of law degree from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in law, policy, and society from Northeastern University.

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