Former federal judge brings Constitution lessons to Eastport students

A former federal judge used terrorism prosecutions, gang cases and his own courtroom experience to show Eastport students that the Constitution is not an abstraction. Joseph F. Bianco visited Eastport-South Manor Junior-Senior High School in Eastport on May 19, speaking to seventh and eighth grade students about the structure of the court system, judicial appointments, judicial independence and the ideals in the Declaration of Independence.

Bianco also pressed the point that civic life is tied to personal ambition. He encouraged students to pursue their goals and said hard work and determination can open doors to opportunities. That message came from a career that stretched from Georgetown University and Columbia Law School to the federal bench, where he served as a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of New York starting in 2006 before later moving to the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Before becoming a judge, Bianco worked as a terrorism prosecutor and as chief of the Organized Crime and Terrorism Unit. He also served as senior counsel and deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, and in private practice at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. School officials said the visit gave students a rare chance to connect classroom civics and American history lessons with the legal experience of a jurist who spent years inside the federal system.

The timing fit Suffolk County’s broader 250th-anniversary observance. Suffolk 250 is marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with a year-long series of events across the county, while also highlighting Suffolk’s role in the American Revolution and the history of the Shinnecock, Montaukett and Unkechaug nations. Bianco’s discussion of judicial independence and the court system landed against that backdrop, as students heard how constitutional ideas were tested in real cases, not just memorized for class.

His law-enforcement background also carried local weight on Long Island. In May 2025, federal prosecutors said Omar Antonio Villalta was sentenced to 55 years in prison for the April 11, 2017 murders of Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre and Jefferson Villalobos in a Central Islip park, along with a fifth murder in Virginia. Suffolk County law-enforcement officials have repeatedly pointed to cases like that as evidence of the continuing effort to dismantle violent gang networks.

That work has remained a defining issue in Suffolk County under District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney, who was elected on November 2, 2021 and took office on January 1, 2022. Tierney created the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force in February 2022 with multiple local, state and federal agencies, underscoring how constitutional power, courtroom process and public safety continue to intersect in Suffolk County.