Constantine George Cholakis

Who was Constantine George Cholakis?

Constantine George Cholakis was a United States federal judge.

Cholakis was born in Troy, New York. He was a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Korean War from 1951 to 1953, and then entered college. He received a B.A. in sociology from Siena College in 1955, and a J.D. from Albany Law School in 1958. He was in private practice of law in Troy, New York from 1958 to 1970, and he held various positions in the public sector. He was an assistant district attorney of Rensselaer County, New York from 1963 to 1965, and he was an assistant public defender for that county 1966 to 1967. He became district attorney in 1968, and held that position until 1974. He was then a county judge from 1974 to 1977, and was a justice of the New York Supreme Court, Third Judicial District, from 1978 to 1986. While on this court, his most famous ruling was to annul the suspension of the license of a physician who assisted in home births, a practice that New York's Department of Health had opposed.

Although a lifelong Republican, he was initially reluctant to accept a national position in federal court. He agreed, however, to allow Senator Alfonse M.