The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: Life and Law in the Commonwealth, 1684–2017

Published by Penn State University Press 2018

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Life and Law in the Commonwealth, 1684–2017

Edited by: John J. Hare

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271081991

Overview
Contents

About this book

Established in 1684, over a century before the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is the oldest appellate court in North America. This balanced, comprehensive history of the Court examines over three centuries of legal proceedings and cases before the body, the controversies and conflicts with which it dealt, and the impact of its decisions and of the case law its justices created

Introduced by constitutional scholar Ken Gormley, this volume describes the Supreme Court’s structure and powers and focuses at length on the Court’s work in deciding notable cases of constitutional law, civil rights, torts, criminal law, labor law, and administrative law. Through three sections, “The Structure and Powers of the Supreme Court,” “Decisional Law of the Supreme Court,” and “Reporting Supreme Court Decisions,” the contributors address the many ways in which the Court and its justices have shaped life and law in Pennsylvania and beyond. They consider how it has adjudicated new and complex issues arising from some of the most notable events and tragedies in American history, including the struggle for religious liberty in colonial Pennsylvania, the Revolutionary War, slavery, the Johnstown Flood, the Homestead Steel Strike and other labor conflicts, both World Wars, and, more recently, the dramatic rise of criminal procedural rights and the expansion of tort law.

Featuring an afterword by Chief Justice Saylor and essays by leading jurists, deans, law and history professors, and practicing attorneys, this fair-minded assessment of the Court is destined to become a criterion volume for lawmakers, scholars, and anyone interested in legal history in the Keystone State and the United States.

Author / Editor information

Hare John J. :

John J. Hare is an attorney and the coauthor of Keystone of Justice: The Pennsylvania Superior Court, 1895–1995.

Reviews

“A fascinating and important collection tracing the many ways in which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has shaped the history of the Commonwealth and the nation since its inception in 1684. Taken as a whole, this volume instantly assumes its place as the most comprehensive and wide-ranging historical treatment of the procedural and jurisprudential development of the Court available, and it provides researchers and scholars with views of the Court’s 333-year history that are both celebratory and critically analytical.”
—Steven D. Hinckley, Associate Dean for Library and Information Services and Professor of Law, Penn State Law

“This book successfully achieves what most of its kind cannot—it both educates and inspires. John Hare and his remarkable team of contributors address diverse historical and contemporary topics in a way that generations of lawyers and historians will both enjoy and treasure. This terrific book preserves, unlike any other, the incredible legacy of our Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.”
—Maureen E. Lally-Green, Superior Court of Pennsylvania, J. (ret)

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Foreword John J. Hare Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: The History of a Time-Honored Court Kenneth G. Gormley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1: The Structure and Powers of the Supreme Court
Chapter 1: (S)electing Judges in Pennsylvania Charles L. Becker and Ruxandra M. Laidacker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
Chapter 2: The King’s Bench Powers William S. Stickman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
Chapter 3: The Power of Rulemaking Renée Cohn Jubelirer, Robert L. Byer and Meredith E. Carpenter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
Chapter 4: The Supreme Court’s Singular Criminal Procedure Work in a Pivotal Era James A. Shellenberger and James A. Strazzella Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
Chapter 5: Supervising and Regulating the Practice of Law Thomas G. Wilkinson Jr. and Roger B. Meilton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Chapter 6: Supervising and Regulating the Judiciary Roger B. Meilton and Thomas G. Wilkinson Jr. Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
Chapter 7: The Development and Improvement of Pennsylvania’s Judicial Computer System Joseph A. Del Sole, Amy Ceraso and Thomas B. Darr Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Image Gallery
Image Gallery Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Part 2: Decisional Law of the Supreme Court
Section 1: Constitutional Law and Civil Rights
Chapter 8: The Supreme Court and the Separation of Powers Under the Pennsylvania Constitution Howard J. Bashman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
Chapter 9: The Supreme Court and Religious Liberty: The Competing Visions of William Penn and Chief Justice John Bannister Gibson Gary S. Gildin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
Chapter 10: Free Expression Versus Reputation: The Supreme Court’s Weighing of Interests Carl A. Solano and Edward J. Sholinsky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Chapter 11: Women on the Court and the Court on Women Deborah L. Brake and Susan Frietsche Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	158
Chapter 12: Article I, Section 28 of the Pennsylvania Constitution: Prohibiting the Denial or Abridgment of Equality of Rights Because of Sex Phyllis W. Beck and Michele Hudzicki-Grimmig Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Chapter 13: The Supreme Court’s Enforcement of Antidiscrimination Laws Teresa Ficken Sachs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
Chapter 14: The Supreme Court and the Contours of State and Federal Power in Revolutionary Pennsylvania John J. Hare Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
Section 2: Tort Law
Chapter 15: The Floodgates of Strict Liability: The Johnstown Flood of 1889, the Supreme Court, and the Rise of Modern American Tort Law Jed H. Shugerman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Chapter 16: The Supreme Court and Medical Malpractice Law Charles L. Becker, Shanin Specter and Thomas R. Kline Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Chapter 17: The Ebb and Flow of the Law: The Supreme Court’s Product Liability Jurisprudence James M. Beck Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
Chapter 18: Clash of Titans: The Supreme Court and Product Liability Clifford A. Rieders and Pamela L. Shipman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Section 3: Criminal Law
Chapter 19: The 1778–1779 Chester and Philadelphia Treason Trials: The Supreme Court as Trial Court Carlton F. W. Larson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
Chapter 20: Slavery and the Supreme Court: High Court Justices and the Problem of Fundamental Justice Paul Finkelman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325
Chapter 21: When Felons Don’t Kill: The Felony Murder Rule in Pennsylvania Arthur G. LeFrancois Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	342
Section 4: Labor Law and Economic Rights
Chapter 22: The Supreme Court and the Labor Movement Jeffrey P. Bauman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355
Chapter 23: The Homestead Lockout of 1892 and Jurisprudence in Pennsylvania Melvyn Dubofsky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369
Chapter 24: Defining the Role of the Legislature in Regulating the Economy Vincent C. Deliberato Jr. Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	379
Section 5: Administrative Law
Chapter 25: The Supreme Court and Administrative Law John L. Gedid Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	399
Afterword Thomas G. Saylor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	415
Appendix A: The Reports of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Joel Fishman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	419
Appendix B: Historical List of Supreme Court Justices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	427
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	433

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 456
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 25
- Images: 25
- Other: 25 illustrations

eBook

Published: January 25, 2018
ISBN: 9780271081991