Max Baer

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Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Sitting justices
Ronald Castille
Thomas Saylor
Max Baer
Seamus McCaffrey
Debra Todd
J. Michael Eakin
Jane Greenspan
Former justices
Pennsylvania on Judgepedia

Contents

Max Baer (b. 1947) was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2003 as a Democrat in a partisan election; his current term expires in 2013.

Biography

Baer was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 24, 1947 to Henry and Helen Baer. He is married to Beth Love Hartman. Together they have two sons, Ben and Andy.[1]

Legal Education and Experience

Legal Education

In 1971, Baer graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Arts. In 1975, he graduated with a Juris Doctor from Duquesne University. From 1985-1986, he attended Robert Morris College for credits in the Masters of Tax Program.[2]

Legal Experience

After graduating from law school, from 1975 to 1979, Baer was the Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. From 1980-1989, he was in private practice, which ended when he was elected judge for Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. From 1993 to 1999, he was Administrative Judge for the Family Division, and in 1999 Judge Baer was retained for a second ten-year term. In 2003, he was elected justice for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Awards and Associations

Associations

Max Baer is a former chair, Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee, Ex Officio Representative to the Juvenile Court Judges Commission, Former Member, Joint State Government Commission on Adoption Law and Services to Children and Youth, Former Chair, Pennsylvania Conference of Trial Judges Family Law Section, and Former Member, Conference's Education Committee.

Awards

  • 1997 Adoption Advocate of the Year, Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare
  • 1998 Adoption 2002 Excellence Award for Judicial Innovation, Federal Department of Health and Human Services
  • 1998 Robert S. Steward Award for Distinguished Service to Pennsylvania Families
  • 1999 Child Advocacy Award for Legal Contributions Advancing the Welfare of our Nation's Children
  • 1999 Judicial Achievement Award for Advancing Pro Bono Activities
  • 2000 Child Advocate of the Year, Pennsylvania Bar Association
  • 2003 Champion of Children's Award, Homeless Children's Education Fund
  • 2003 Humanitarian Award for Community Involvement from the J.N.L. Club
  • 2004 Most Valuable Peacemaker, Pennsylvania's Council of Mediators

Publications

  • The Judge's Book (two chapters), National Conference of State Trial Judges
  • 1999 "Custody Wars - The Creation of a New Weapon of Mass Destruction," 21 PA Family Lawyer, Issue No. 4
  • 2000 Guest columnist, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Forum: "Open, Shut and Complicated: A Critique of the Elian Gonzales Case"
  • 2002 "Family Law and Civility: Can They Co-exist?" 24 Family Lawyer, Issue No. 1

Campaign contributors

For Max Baer to win his seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2003, he raised $1,608,597. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party was the largest single contributor with $233,500, or 14.52% of the total giving. Breaking down contributions by economic interest, the largest group in giving was Lawyers and Lobbyists, with $810,720, or 50.40%. The second largest group was the Democratic Party, with $420,690, or 26.15% of the total. The third largest group was Labor, with $130,800, or 8.13%.[3]

Mentally ill death-row inmates

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday dealt setbacks to four death-row inmates, including two mentally ill prisoners from Philadelphia who can now be forcibly medicated in order to make them mentally competent to continue their appeals. Ruling in the case of Thavirak Sam, a Cambodian immigrant who killed three family members in 1989 and has been mentally incompetent for years, the court said that if Sam were left untreated, his appeal would remain in limbo indefinitely. "Not to litigate the claims delays both justice and finality," wrote Chief Justice Ronald Castille, who was Philadelphia district attorney when the killings occurred.

The issue is important because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that convicted murderers cannot be executed if they are so mentally ill that they cannot understand why they face a death sentence and what that sentence means. Sam, now 51, has been on death row since 1991, and prosecutors have been trying for several years to get him medicated so he can be competent enough to decide whether he wants to continue his appeal or be put to death. At varying points over the years, Sam has imagined that the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered him freed and that a Cambodian prince had interceded on his behalf. In both cases, Castille was joined by Justices Thomas Saylor, J. Michael Eakin and Seamus McCaffery. Justices Max Baer and Debra Todd dissented. [4]

Court upholds taking of private property

"A city agency acted legally when it seized a woman's home to help a religious group build a private school in a blighted Philadelphia neighborhood, the state Supreme Court ruled this week." The decision pitting eminent domain against the separation of church and state reverses a ruling by the lower Commonwealth Court, which had sided with homeowner Mary Smith. "The principal or primary effect of the redevelopment plan ... is to eliminate blight in this particular neighborhood," Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Baldwin wrote for the majority. A secondary effect could be the advancement of religion, but there is no evidence that is the primary goal, she wrote.

The city Redevelopment Authority condemned Smith's property in North Philadelphia in 2003 and transferred it to the Hope Partnership for Education, a Catholic organization that proposed a nondenominational middle school for the site, among other projects. Smith appealed the condemnation, arguing that it benefited a private religious entity and was not for a public purpose as the law requires. Common Pleas Court found the condemnation lawful, Commonwealth Court ruled that it wasn't, and now the Supreme Court has ruled that it is, provided the primary purpose is to remove blight. Supreme Court Justice Max Baer disagreed, calling the majority decision unfortunate. "I believe this is a case of direct government aid, in the form of a land transfer below market value, to a religious organization for the development of a religious school," Baer wrote in his dissent. The result, he wrote, is the "direct financing of religious education with the primary effect of advancing religion."[5]

Cost of judicial offices

Pennsylvania taxpayers spend $3.42 million a year to house 43 appeals judges in personal offices, often at some of the swankiest addresses. "The judiciary's extravagant expenditures on office space are just one more example of the mismanagement of the public's purse in Pennsylvania," said Matt Brouillette, president of the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative Harrisburg think tank. "This is yet another example of how we've lost sight of what it means to go into 'public service.'" Three of the 10 most-expensive offices -- occupied by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ralph Cappy and Justice Max Baer, and Superior Court Judge Debra Todd -- are in Pittsburgh's One Oxford Centre, an elite Downtown office building with tenants including high-powered law firms, the members-only Rivers Club and specialty shops hawking Rolex watches. Pennsylvania's appellate system -- its Supreme Court is the nation's oldest appeals court -- is set up as a circuit, or travelling, court with judges working out of offices near their homes rather than in a centralized, state-owned building in the capital. No such building exists in Harrisburg, although a $92 million judicial center is to be finished by 2008 to house administrative staff and the Commonwealth Court, whose judges still will maintain their personal chambers across the state. In the late 1980s and early '90s, Pennsylvania lawmakers investigated what it would cost to centralize the appeals courts and it "was astronomical," Cappy said. "It was going to cost well over $1 billion to centralize just the Supreme Court." Cappy said he believes that system is the right one. "This is probably the most reasonable way to do this," he said.

Taxpayers spent $10,512 a month for Cappy's 4,996-square-foot chambers (a law library and office space for himself and 10 employees) in One Oxford Centre, while the average market value for a top-of-the-line office that size in Pittsburgh's central business district is $9,609. It costs considerably more to provide Baer with an extra 183 square feet in the same building -- $12,515 a month for 5,179 square feet. Similar space averages $9,960 a month. Justice J. Michael Eakin spends more than $11,000 a month for 5,143 square feet in Mechanicsburg, a suburb of Harrisburg where commercial real estate professionals say office space should be considerably cheaper than in the state's two largest metropolitan areas.[6]

Controversial sex-offender decision

Judge Max Baer again refused pleas from Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families to move a 5-year-old girl from the home of a foster father who impregnated his own 13-year-old daughter. This time, Baer made the decision after CYF showed that the foster child was the victim of sexual abuse in a previous foster home and was setting fires. Baer said he felt the child was in the best place she could be right now. CYF has tried to persuade judges to move the child since discovering last fall that the foster father had pled guilty in 1960 to sodomy and incest. This time, CYF urged Baer to place the child in a different home because she'd been sexually abused in a previous foster home, which would make it difficult to know if any sexual behavior now was a result of that prior assault or a new assault. The judge refused to hear additional testimony regarding the criminal record because CYF is appealing his refusal to remove the child based solely on that record. Hanley had urged Baer to listen to additional evidence she'd gathered regarding that record, saying, "I hate to think that while we wait for the judicial system to catch up that this child would be hurt." Baer said, however that Superior Court would decide that matter, and in the meantime, "I feel, all things considered, it is in the best interest of this child to remain in this home at this time."[7]

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Pennsylvania Supreme Court: Max Baer
  2. ↑ Pennsylvania Supreme Court: Max Baer
  3. ↑ Follow the Money: Max Baer
  4. ↑ The Philadelphia Inquirer
  5. ↑ Government can seize private property
  6. ↑ Judges' offices cost taxpayers $3.42 million a year
  7. ↑ Post-Gazette
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