By Wesley R. Payne
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is the oldest appellate court in the United States and its founding 300 years ago predates the founding of our nation. In the 30 decades since the Court was founded, it has made history in numerous ways, with cases that set the precedent for how the law is interpreted in the Commonwealth and also throughout the country.
In 1789, the case Republica v. Negroe (sic) Betsey freed three children born to an enslaved mother based on Pennsylvania’s 1780 anti-slavery law. The case would later become important in the national development of anti-slavery jurisprudence. More recently, in 2012, the court’s decision in Applewhite v. Commonwealth found that Pennsylvania’s voter ID law was onerous to the point of infringing on the fundamental right to vote. The ruling has set a precedent for scrutiny of Voter ID laws by the courts, an issue that has only gained in prominence in the past decade.
Perhaps most notably, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court became a prototype for the establishment of the U.S. Supreme Court. James Wilson, one of Pennsylvania’s delegates at the Constitutional Convention, played a significant role in framing the powers of the Supreme Court and was later one of the first appointed to that Court by President George Washington.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has also made history through its appointments: Anne X. Alpern became the Court’s first woman Justice in 1961, when she was appointed by then-Gov. David L. Lawrence. Alpern was also the first woman to become City Solicitor for a large U.S. city (Pittsburgh) and the first woman state attorney general.
Robert N.C. Nix, Jr., who was appointed to the Court in 1971 and elected in 1972, was the first Black justice to serve on the Supreme Court. He became Chief Justice in 1984, and was the first Black Chief Justice of any high court in the United States.
Juanita Kidd Stout, who was appointed to the Court in 1988, was both the first Black woman justice to serve on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the first to serve as a justice of any U.S. high court.
The court recently made history again when Chief Justice Debra Todd became the first woman to hold that position.
In the center spread of this month’s issue of The Philadelphia Lawyer, you can find a timeline with additional important moments in the Court’s history.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is an important touchstone for all of us who work as legal professionals in the Commonwealth, and truly for all residents because decisions made by the Court have significant implications for not just how we practice law, but also the way we live and the way justice is administered in the state.
Here’s to the next 300 years of innovation – and beyond.
Wesley R. Payne is 2022 Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association.
