IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This faculty profile is way too long (limitless if you follow all the links).  Neither the subject, the author (same person) nor Maritime College are responsible if you read too much and are injured as a result.  Proceed at your own risk.  Practice social distancing. Wash your hands.

Jim Maloney graduated from Maritime in 1980, and was the first student to join the Humanities Study Area Concentration when it was first introduced while he was an upperclassman during the late 1970s. For several years after graduating, Maloney made his living as a licensed deck officer on American merchant ships, returning to the College to teach aboard the Training Ship Empire State V for the 1985 Summer Sea Term and then teaching Electronic Navigation as an adjunct during Spring 1986. Later that year, he completed a paramedic training program in which he had enrolled mainly in order to be better prepared for handling medical emergencies at sea (but also because he liked flashing lights and sirens). In 1987, Maloney was offered, and accepted, a job as a paramedic at the now-defunct Saint Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. Then, as the fire of the 1980s flickered out like a spent Molotov cocktail smashed on bare concrete, Jim decided to obtain a practical and somewhat remedial education in the law. In 1990, he took the Law School Aptitude Test (LSAT), and  the following year started in Fordham Law School’s evening program while still working full-time as a paramedic. Maloney was a write-on member of the Fordham Law Review, where he authored and published two articles on constitutional law while a student. Jim also received awards in Admiralty and International Law upon his graduation in 1995. He next worked as an associate attorney at two historic (i.e., old and now defunct) New York maritime law firms, Burlingham Underwood LLP and Kirlin Campbell & Keating. Maloney began his private solo practice in late 1999, and earned a Master of Laws degree from NYU Law School in 2004 in a self-designed program in Constitutional Law, studying federalism and federal systems such as those in the United States, Germany and the European Union.

In addition to practicing maritime law, Maloney has pursued constitutional claims in federal court, both on behalf of clients and in his own name (pro se). His best known pro se case began in 2003 and involved the right to keep and bear arms (specifically, the martial-arts weapon known as the nunchaku). The case reached the United States Supreme Court as Maloney v. Rice (2010), and later went to trial before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, which rendered a decision striking down the 44-year-old New York nunchaku ban in its entirety on December 14, 2018.  Watch a Newsday video clip of Jim commenting on the decision here, read his Daily News OpEd piece here, or check out his appearance on The Daily Show here.

Jim's 1996 law review article on maritime liens remains an authoritative source on the topic, having been cited in a 2014 opinion by Judge Vernon Broderick of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Maloney is admitted to practice law in the state of New York and before numerous federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and Third Circuits, the Court of International Trade, the Court of Federal Claims, and the United States District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York, Northern District of Florida, Eastern District of Texas, Northern District of Illinois, District of Connecticut, and District of New Jersey. Since 2011, he has served as a court-annexed mediator at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Maloney is a Proctor Member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States and a member of the Marine Society of the City of New York. His last Coast Guard license expired in 2002, but from 2001 to 2009, Jim taught an adult education course on Celestial Navigation in his local school district. Maloney still has his sextant and is prepared to use it.*

Selected Publications and Work Product

“Piloting and Radar Navigation” chapter in The Merchant Marine Officers’ Handbook (1989)

"Shooting for an Omnipotent Congress: The Constitutionality of Federal Regulation of Intrastate Firearms Possession" (1994)

"Suits for the Hirsute: Defending Against America's Undeclared War on Beards in the Workplace" (1995)

"A Breach in Tort’s Clothing: Pleading Cargo Claims to Gain Lien Priority" in Journal of Maritime Law & Commmerce (1996)

An Open Letter to the Faculty of SUNY Maritime College (February 15, 2000)

A Thought Experiment: The Commerce Power and the 18th Amendment (2001)

"Fighting for Basic Human Rights in the Workplace: A Conversation with Lewis Maltby" in Regional Labor Review (2003)

"The Unfair Exclusion of Marine Insureds from New York’s 2008 Legislative Reform" (2012)

Petition for Certiorari, American Petroleum & Transport, Inc. v. City of New York (2014)

Amicus Brief on behalf of Seamen's Church Institute, Asignacion v. Rickmers Genoa Schiffahrtsgesellschaft mbH & CIE KG (2015)

The Second Amendment: Obstacle or Catalyst to Sensible Gun Legislation? (2018)

"Nunchucks win a battle: Second Amendment court rulings bring solutions for gun violence closer" in NY Daily News (2018)

Other Links of Possible Interest

"The Saga of Fort Schuyler" (manuscript of James Harvey Tomb, 1943)*

Margaret Tracy and Balbina Johnson: The Women Behind Bacitracin (another tale from 1943)*

How to Make Natto (Japanese fermented soybeans) (using same species of bacteria as in Bacitracin)

Repository of Documents filed in Maloney v. Rice (maintained by Michel & Associates, P.C.)

"When NROTC Was Lost and Returned" at SUNY Maritime (News From Fort Schuyler, 1999)

Interview with Jim Maloney (pp. 8-10, Summer 2014 issue of Fort Schuyler MARINER)

"What Good Is Celestial Navigation?" (pp. 22-25, November 2004 issue of Fort Schuyler MARINER)*

Letter to the Editor about Celestial Navigation at the U.S. Naval Academy (New York Times, May 22, 1998)

Feature Article on Nunchaku, Kevin Orcutt, and Jim Maloney (Westword, August 6, 2009)

Guest Post on The Elliot Schlissel New York Law Blog (March 4, 2009)

N.Y, Attorney General Press Release of October 2002 (Spitzer: nunchaku, etc. have no place in "our homes")*

N.Y. Division of Criminal Justice Services Memorandum of April 1974 (opposing nunchaku ban) (html version)

N.Y. Division of Criminal Justice Services Memorandum of April 1974 (opposing nunchaku ban) (pdf version)*

"Venturing Out Across Mill Pond Road" (reflections on the death of a goose on August 27, 2015)*

Nunchaku Man Comics (no connection to nunchakulaw) (also apparently died on August 27, 2015)

* Links marked with an asterisk are to web pages captured and preserved on the Wayback Machine.