In a recent ceremony at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse—the seat of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York—a ninth floor courtroom was renamed The Honorable John F. Keenan Ceremonial Courtroom, in honor of Fordham Law alumnus Judge John F. Keenan.
After graduating from Fordham Law in 1954 and serving for two years in the U.S. Army, Keenan served as an assistant district attorney in New York County from 1956 to 1976. He later rose to the position of chief assistant under District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, during which time he headed the homicide bureau and prosecuted some of the city’s most notable murder cases.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan appointed Keenan to the position of United States district judge for the Southern District of New York, where he became a member of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation and the Foreign Intelligence Service Court.
Over the course of his 33 years of service, Keenan has presided over numerous historically significant cases, including the sentencing of high-profile terrorists and convicting members of the Colombo crime family for racketeering, labor extortion, loan sharking, and bribery of public officials.