Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Historical Commission
Est. 2023
Pittsburgh Courtroom Portraits
Max Baer
Oil Painting on Linen - 2023 - Artist: Joseph Routon
A native of Pittsburgh, David Max Baer was named after his grandfathers. Happy to be confused with the famous Jewish boxer, Max Baer, he started going by Max during his time at Duquesne Law School. After being admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar, Baer served as a deputy attorney general before moving to private practice. After nine years, he ran as "The Fighting Judge" for a seat on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. During his time on that court, he became nationally recognized for his reforms to the county's juvenile justice system. His advocacy for children continued after he was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in 2003, when he began spearheading initiatives to speed up the appeals process for domestic cases involving children. Baer became Chief Justice in 2021 and served until his unexpected death in office in October 2022.
Ralph J. Cappy
Oil Painting on Linen - 2009 - Artist: Joseph Routon
After graduating from University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Cappy was admitted to the Allegheny County Bar in 1968 and entered private practice. While engaged in private practice, he clerked for Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Henry Ellenbogen and, later, began working with the county's Public Defender's Office. He became the Director of that office before being appointed to the Common Pleas Court by Governor Milton Shapp. He was later elected in 1979 and served until he was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ten years later.
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Cappy became Chief Justice in 2003 and retired before the expiration of his term in 2008 to private practice. He died in 2009, shortly before the opening of the Pennsylvania Judicial Center in Harrisburg. For his efforts in securing funding for the building, his portrait also hangs in that building's Judicial Council Room.​
Stephen A. Zappala
Oil Painting on Linen - 2003 - Artist: Joseph Routon
Chief Justice Stephen Zappala is the second of three consecutive Pittsburgh-born Chief Justices of Pennsylvania, succeeding John P. Flaherty and preceding Ralph J. Cappy. Zappala played basketball for the University of Notre Dame before returning home to play for Duquesne University. After graduating, he served as a First Lieutenant in the Army before being honorably discharged and attending Georgetown University Law School. Zappala was admitted to the Allegheny County Bar in 1959 and entered into private practice with his father and brother.
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After fifteen years of practice, Zappala began his public service as Allegheny County's solicitor to the Authority for Improvements in Municipalities. He was elected to the Common Pleas in 1979 and two years later to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He became Chief Justice in January 2002 and served until his mandatory retirement at the end of that same year. During his time on the bench Zappala spearheaded the largest computer automation program in the country to integrate the three appellate court's computer systems. For his service, the Court granted him Chief Justice Emeritus status for only the second time in the Court's history.
John P. Flaherty, Jr.
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
After graduating from Duquesne University, John Flaherty enlisted in the Army and served as a First Lieutenant in Oklahoma and Kentucky. He returned home and attended University of Pittsburgh School of Law. After being admitted to the Allegheny County Bar in 1958, he opened a solo practice in Mt. Lebanon. While practicing he was also a Professor at Carnegie-Mellon University for pre-law students. His fifteen years of private practice ended after he was elected to the Common Pleas Court in 1973. In 1979 he received both parties nominations for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and was appointed to fill a six month vacancy before winning a full term in November. Flaherty became Chief Justice in 1996 and served for five years until his mandatory retirement in 2001.
For his service, the Court for the first time in its history granted him the title of Chief Justice Emeritus and he was placed in charge of the Court's Continuing Legal Education Program until he stepped away for health reasons in 2014.
Samuel J. Roberts
Oil Painting on Linen - 1986 - Artist Unknown
Samuel Roberts graduated from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania before attending Law School at Penn. He returned home to Erie and was admitted to the county Bar in 1932. His twenty years of private practice was interrupted for two years of service as a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
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Governor John Fine nominated Roberts as a judge of the Orphan's Court of Erie County in 1952, and he was elected the following year. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1962 and became Chief Justice in 1983. He retired at the end of that year and became a Senior Judge on the Superior Court. During his time on that court, Roberts was appointed as a special master by the US Supreme Court in tax dispute between South Carolina and the Federal Government.
Henry X. O'Brien
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
After graduating from Duquesne University School of Law, O'Brien was admitted to the Allegheny County Bar in 1929 and entered into private practice. He began his public service during that time serving as a Solicitor for two local school districts and later an Assistant District Attorney, before being nominated to the Common Pleas by Governor John Duff. O'Brien was later elected in 1949.
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In July 1961, Upon the early retirement of Chief Justice Charles A. Jones, Governor David Lawrence nominated Pennsylvania's Attorney General, Anne X. Alpern, as the first female Justice in Pennsylvania's history. But, in order to win a full term she would need to win the election just a few months away and her opponent was O'Brien. After a contentious campaign, O'Brien was the victor and Alpern returned to Allegheny County to fill the vacancy left on the Common Pleas bench by his election.
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O'Brien became Pennsylvania's Chief Justice in 1980 and served out the remaining three years of his 21-year term. During his time on the Court, O'Brien unsuccessfully tried to tackle the backlog of criminal cases in Philadelphia and established the Lawyer Client Security Fund to reimburse clients defrauded by their lawyers.
Robert S. Frazer
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist: Robert Susan
Robert Frazer was first admitted to practice in 1873 and was elected to the Pennsylvania House in 1877. After his term expired, Frazer left to work for the Auditor General before being elected to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in 1896.
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Elected to the Supreme Court in 1915, and becoming Chief Justice in 1930, Frazer retired in 1936 at the expiration of his term and died that same year at the age of 86. His legal career spanned 62 years with 40 of those serving as a judge.
James P. Sterrett
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
Born in 1822 in Juniata County, Sterrett’s study of law began at Dickinson College and ended at the University of Virginia. He began his public service as the President Judge of Allegheny County. Governor Hartranft then appointed him to the Court in 1877, but he lost the election later that year. Undeterred, he again ran for the Court the following year and was elected. He became the Chief Justice in 1893 and retired in 1900. Chief Justice Sterrett spent the remainder of his life in Philadelphia and died in 1901.
James B. Drew
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist F. C. VonHausen
Plagued by poor eyesight throughout his life and advised by his doctors to quit law school due to the effect reading was having on his vision, James Drew graduated from Columbia University School of Law and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1900. Two years later he was admitted to the Allegheny County Bar and was elected judge of the Common Pleas in 1911. Drew's time as a judge was interrupted for service in the Judge Advocates General Corp during World War I. After the war, Drew returned to the Common Pleas and was later elected to the Superior Court in 1930. Governor Gifford Pinchot appointed him to the Supreme Court the following year and after winning both parties nominations, Drew was easily elected for a full term.
His work in handling judicial matters in the western part of the state, led him to be dubbed "The Chief Justice of Western Pennsylvania." One notable instance arose in 1951 from a trial of trespass in which Defendant's counsel, Hymen Schlesinger, was questioned by the judge about his ties to the Communist Party. After not receiving an answer, Judge Michael Musmanno found Schlesinger in contempt. In response to a Petition for Writ of Prohibition, Chief Justice Drew wrote:
What the Judge has done, in his zeal against communism, is to adopt the detestable method employed by communists themselves in arbitrary and unjudicial proceedings contrary to all our cherished traditions of law and legal procedure.
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Chief Justice Drew vacated the order finding Schlesinger in contempt. Musmanno was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in November and, in poor health, Drew retired the following year.​
Daniel Agnew
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
Daniel Agnew began studying law in Pittsburgh and was admitted to the Allegheny County Bar in 1829. Unable to find enough clients, Agnew moved his practice to Beaver County where he was appointed President Judge of the 17th Judicial District in 1851. Agnew became a Justice in 1863 and served his entire 15-year term.
John Dean
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist: Antrum Landay
After studying law under James M. Bell and D. H. Hofius in Hollidaysburg, John Dean was admitted to practice in Blair County in 1855. Dean was elected that county’s District Attorney in 1868 and later elected President Judge of the 24th Judicial District in 1871. During his time on the county bench, Dean rendered over 2,500 verdicts and sentenced 2,000 criminals after conviction. He served in that position until being elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1892. After suffering a stroke, Dean died in office in 1905. The entire court and two former Justices served as honorary pall bearers at his funeral in Hollidaysburg.
Walter H. Lowrie
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist: Albert Rosenthal
​Chief Justice Lowrie was first admitted to the Allegheny County Bar in 1829. In 1846, Lowrie was appointed as a Judge, and he was later among the first Justice ever elected to the Supreme Court in 1851 and became Chief Justice in 1857. During the Civil War, US Marshalls seized the Jeffersonian newspaper in West Chester, a paper critical of the Federal Government. Chief Justice Lowrie presided over the trial in which the jury found the seizure unconstitutional and ordered its return to the owner. Lowrie finished his public service as the President Judge in Crawford County and died in office in 1876.
Edward M. Paxson
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist: M. B. Leissell
Edward Paxson was first admitted to practice in Bucks County in 1850 and was later appointed as a judge to that county’s common pleas court in 1869. Paxson was elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1874 and served until 1893, when he stepped down to become the receiver of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. Interestingly, after Paxson’s death, the Supreme Court invalidated his will on the basis that it failed to satisfy certain requirements that Paxson himself had recognized in an opinion he previously authored on behalf of the Supreme Court.
Isaac G. Gordon
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
After injuring his foot with molten metal in an iron foundry, Isaac Gordon turned to the study of law under James F. Linn. He was first admitted to practice in Union County and practiced privately for nearly two decades before being elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1860. A leader in the temperance movement, he was appointed the President Judge of the 28th Judicial District by Governor Hartranft.
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Gordon was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1873 and became Chief Justice in 1887, owing to the death of Ulysses Mercur. He served out the remaining two years of his term before retiring to Jefferson County to practice law with his son, Cadmus.
John Trunkey
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
A native of Venango county, John Trunkey was a highly-regard member of the profession by the bar in Western Pennsylvania. He studied law under Samuel Griffith in Mercer County and was admitted to the Venango County Bar in 1851. He was elected the President Judge of the 28th Judicial District spanning both counties and served in that post over ten years until his election to the Pennsylvanai Supreme Court in 1877. Trunkey was stricken with Renal disease in 1888 and sought treatment in London. After four weeks of treatment he died in office, just a few months before he would have become Pennsylvania's Chief Justice.
William A. Potter
Oil Painting on Linen - 1911 - Artist: M. H. Kevokian
William Potter was born in Iowa and first began practicing law there in 1880. Three years later he moved to Pittsburgh and became the law partner of William A. Stone. After Stone's election as Pennsylvania's Governor, Potter was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1900 and elected to a full term the following year. Potter served until his unexpected death in office in 1918. After his term as Governor ended in 1903, Stone returned to private practice until his appointment as the Prothonotary for the Court in 1915.
Stephen Leslie Mestrezat
Oil Painting on Linen - 1911 - Artist: M. H. Kevokian
After graduating from Washington and Lee University, S. Leslie Mestrezat was admitted to practice law in Greene County. His diligent work led to a partnership with Charles Boyle, a prominent Democratic politician, in Fayette County. After Boyle left for Congress, he was elected the District Attorney of Fayette County and later judge. In 1899, the Democrats nominated Mestrezat as their candidate for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, while the Republicans nominated J. Hay Brown. There was only one open seat until the unexpected death on the court left another vacancy. Because of a law barring more than one candidate for the Supreme Court per party, both Brown and Mestrezat won a seat on the Court with a coin flip determining Brown’s seniority.
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Mestrezat died in office April 28, 1918, just two weeks after his colleague, Justice William P. Potter, thus creating the same electoral situation where Alexander Simpson Jr. and John Kephart unexpectedly won an election originally intended to fill one vacancy. Painted by the same artist, Mestrezat and Potter's portraits hang next to each other in the conference room.
John Bannister Gibson
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
John Bannister Gibson is the Court's longest serving Justice. While he was studying law at Dickinson College, Justice Hugh Brackenridge gave Gibson the use of his private library. First beginning his legal practice in Cumberland County, he was later elected to the Pennsylvania House in 1809 and while serving, represented an enslaved four-year-old boy arguing he should be freed under the Act for Gradual Abolition of Slavery written by George Bryan. The Supreme Court ruled against Gibson and sided with the boy's enslaver.
After Brackenridge's death, in 1816, Governor Simon Snyder appointed Gibson to fill his seat at only 36 years old. He became Chief Justice in 1827 and served in that position until 1851. Pennsylvania amended its Constitution in 1850 to require the election of judges and in the first ever judicial election, Gibson was the only Justice to win their seat back. The Justices drew lots to determine seniority, and he served as an Associate Justice until his death in 1853.
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Gibson authored over twelve hundred opinions, but his most famous was his dissent in Eakin v. Raub, 12 Sergeant & Rawle 330 (Pa. 1825), in which he questioned the concept of judicial review and, as rumored, may have cost himself a seat on the United States Supreme Court. In addition to a number of portraits on display, Gibson is also honored with a marble bust in the Philadelphia courtroom.​
Henry Warren Williams
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist: A. L. Dalbey
The first Henry Warren Williams to serve on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was born in 1816 and raised on a farm in Connecticut. After graduating from Amherst College he moved to Pittsburgh to teach school. During that time, he studied the law with, and later became the law partner of, Walter H. Lowrie.
Williams was elected a District Court Judge in 1851 and was appointed by Governor John W. Geary to fill a vacancy on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court left after William Strong's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1868. He served on the Court until his retirement in 1876 due to health reasons and died the following year. Justice Henry Warren Williams hangs in the Court's Pittsburgh Conference Room and should not be confused with Justice Henry Warren Williams who was elected ten years after his death and whose portrait hangs in the Philadelphia Conference Room.
John P. Elkin
Oil Painting on Linen - 1916 - Artist: Albert Rosenthal
Justice John Elkin, began his career as a public school teacher in Indiana County before going to college. He was admitted to the Indiana County Bar in 1885 and entered private practice before being elected to the Pennsylvania House in 1885 at 24 years old and as a legislator he succeeded in an increase in education funding by 50%. He later served as the Pennsylvania Attorney General before he won a seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1904. Elkin died in office in 1915.
Silas M. Clark
Oil Painting on Linen - 1892 - Artist: L. H. Darragh
Hanging next to Justice Elkin is another native of Indiana County, Justice Silas Clark. He was admitted to the county bar in 1857 after studying law under with William M. Stewart. He entered private practice in 1858 with Stewart and after the latter moved to Philadelphia, Clark became a sole practitioner. While a Democrat, Elkin was a strong supporter of the Union during the Civil War and Clark won a seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as part of the state-wide Democrat wave in 1882. Clark served until his death in 1891.
Charles Alvin Jones
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist: Malcolm Parcell
After studying law at Dickinson School of Law, Jones was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1910. His nearly thirty years of practice was briefly interrupted for service as a volunteer ambulance driver with the French Army and later as an Ensign in the US Navy during World War I. Jones began his judicial career in 1939 after being appointed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He remained in that position until he was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1944. In 1956, Jones became the first Justice elected as a Democrat to become Chief Justice in ninety years. Citing his deteriorating vision, Jones retired five years before the expiration of his term.
John Kennedy
Oil Painting on Linen - Undated - Artist Unknown
John Kennedy graduated from Dickinson College in the same class as later United States Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, and was admitted to practice in four counties throughout the state. After over thirty years of practice, and without prior judicial experience, Governor George Wolf appointed him to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1830 where he served until his death in office in 1846.