Monaghan was born in
Holyoke, Massachusetts, on May 26, 1934. He graduated from
Holyoke Junior College in 1953, and received his
Bachelor of Arts from the
University of Massachusetts in 1955. He received his
Bachelor of Laws from
Yale Law School in 1958 and a
Master of Laws from
Harvard Law School in 1960. In 2018, he received the inaugural
Daniel J. Meltzer Award from the
Association of American Law Schools for his scholarship on the federal courts. His students included Columbia Law School professor
Gillian E. Metzger and Dean of
New York University School of Law Trevor Morrison. His views are sometimes considered conservative, though he was a self-described Democrat. Monaghan was named a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1988. Monaghan died on January 1, 2025, at the age of 90. ==Works==