Baer awaits his new fights for justice
Watching the trial of the Chicago Seven 34 years ago helped Max Baer choose a career.
The radical activists were accused of inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Baer, then a college student, became convinced that the presiding judge held personal opinions that caused him to unfairly penalize the defendants.
"I said: 'I could do better,' " Baer recalled. " 'You know, I should become a judge.' "
Baer is leaving his post as an Allegheny County judge and will take office Monday as Pennsylvania's newest Supreme Court justice.
He said a good judge doesn't pretend to not have opinions. What matters, Baer said, is a judge's ability to put biases aside and to uphold the law.
"I would put my mom in jail on Mother's Day if I had to," Baer said.
No one could accuse Baer of hiding his beliefs. The centerpiece of his Supreme Court campaign was that he aired his personal opinions on controversial issues -- his support for abortion rights and the death penalty and his opposition to caps on jury-damage awards.
He was able to speak freely because of a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Minnesota vs. White. The nation's highest court struck down as unconstitutional old state laws barring judicial candidates from voicing personal opinions.
Baer remains willing to speak his mind on potential court business and on his own limitations. He favors allowing jurors to take notes in criminal trials and supports allowing cameras in courts as long as individual judges retain power in their courtrooms.
As the first former Family Court judge to win election to the state Supreme Court, Baer said he has a lot of learning to do in criminal law, admitting his knowledge is not as thorough as in other legal areas.
Baer campaigned for the state Supreme Court seat as the "fighting judge" -- having the same name as a 1930s heavyweight boxing champion, though the two aren't related. His trademark boxing-gloved teddy bear and "fighting judge" moniker fit his style, he said.
Baer has developed a reputation for bluntness and candor. He did not invite fellow Common Pleas Judge Cheryl Allen to his Dec. 26 Supreme Court swearing-in ceremony, and he wrote her a note explaining his reason.
"I wrote her a letter as a courtesy because she was the only judge I wasn't inviting, and I didn't want her to publicly question why," Baer said.
Baer wrote that he believed Allen, his opponent in a primary race, worked against him in the Nov. 4 general election.
Allen said she has had philosophical differences with other judges that has not affected a working relationship, but with Baer the differences became personal. Allen said Baer's letter was unnecessary, showing that he was trying to "put me in my place" for having refused to campaign for him.
"He should be focusing on celebrating victory -- not taking the time to stoop to what I consider to be extreme pettiness," said Allen, who flatly denied working for or against any candidate in the general election.
Baer is the son of Helen, 83, and Henry "Budd" Baer, 85, a Western Pennsylvania auto dealer in Washington. While not part of the family business, the judge developed a love for cars -- he keeps for weekend use two Porsche sports cars that he describes as old enough to be affordable.
Baer spent his first years in his native Dormont but followed a family tradition of attending high school at what was then called Linsly Military Academy in Wheeling, W.Va. Baer describes the school -- no longer a military institution -- as a prestigious college-preparatory academy.
He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971 and his law degree from Duquesne University School of Law in 1975. He met his wife of 27 years, Beth, in 1973 when he began working as a "go-fer" at the Allegheny County Bar Association. His said his future wife, a receptionist, at first refused to connect callers who had asked to speak to Baer because she thought no one of that name worked there.
Baer, a Democrat, decided to run for the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in 1989 -- a decision that surprised his mother.
"I said: 'We don't have any politicians in the family. We don't know anyone in power,' " said Helen Baer, 83, of Mt. Lebanon. "But I told him he's a good lawyer, and he was determined."
Baer served in Family Court for 10 years, including six years as administrative judge in the Family Division. He moved to the Civil Division in 1999.
"I think he has been seen here -- and justifiably so -- as someone who makes a difference in the way children are handled in the court system," said Thomas M. Mulroy, chairman of the Allegheny County Bar Association's Family Law Division and a professional acquaintance of Baer for 30 years.
Among innovations that Baer helped bring to Family Court, said Mulroy, were night court sessions and the $37 million renovation of the old county jail into the new Family Division headquarters. Baer also helped start a one-judge, one-family system in which families with multiple court matters could consolidate all cases under one judge.
Baer's mother said she saw her son's interest in young people and families early on when he became a summer-camp counselor.
"I think if things had worked out the way he had envisioned, social service would have been his career," Helen Baer said.
Baer's soon-to-be-abandoned office in the civil courts still holds dozens of toys, dolls and models that Baer had accumulated during his term on Family Court to mollify frightened children. The collection began, he said, when a young child caught in a divorce dispute in 1990 began admiring a Star Trek Christmas ornament that a friend had given Baer.
"When the child just metamorphosed in front of me from scared-to-death to willing-to-talk, I knew I had hit on something," Baer recalled.
Baer, whose election leaves the Republicans with a 4-3 edge on the top court, said it is too early for a junior justice to talk about sweeping changes that he might seek when he joins the top court.
Baer said, though, he hopes that he can build mediation networks to allow many divorces and other family issues to be solved outside court. Children often lose, he said, when parents fight each other in courts -- which, he said, are not really designed to put children first.
He vowed to bring the same work ethic to the state's top court as he brought to his first judicial post in Family Court.
"I'll treasure the position," Baer said. "I'll be in the office early. I'll be in the office late."
Additional Information:
Biography
Max Baer
Age: 56
Residence: Mt. Lebanon
Family: Wife, Beth, 50; sons, Ben, 23, and Andy, 20
Party: Democratic
Education: Baer received his bachelor of arts from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971 and his law degree from Duquesne University School of Law in 1975.
Background: A deputy state attorney general from 1975-79, Baer then went into private practice for 10 years. Elected to Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in 1989, where Baer spent about 10 years in the family division before moving to civil court in 1999. He defeated Superior Court Judge Joan Orie Melvin in November to win a seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
