David Wecht
David N. Wecht | |
|---|---|
| Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania | |
| Assumed office January 7, 2016 | |
| Judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania | |
| In office 2011–2015 | |
| Trial Judge of the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas for the Fifth Judicial District | |
| In office February 2003 – January 2012 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1962 (age 61–62) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Valerie Wecht |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | Yale University (BA, JD) |
David Norman Wecht (born 1962) is an American attorney and jurist, currently serving as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Prior to his election in 2015, Wecht had served on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania since 2011, when he was elected to a 10-year term.[1][2]
Early life and education
He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 20, 1962. Wecht is the son of Cyril Wecht, a nationally-recognized pathologist and former Allegheny County medical examiner,[3] known for famously disagreeing with the single-bullet theory in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.[4] His mother spent the first six years of her life living under Nazi occupation in Norway.[4]
Wecht graduated from the Shady Side Academy in 1980. He then attended Yale College, where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society and graduated with the distinction summa cum laude for his studies in history and political science in 1984.[4] Wecht then attended Yale Law School where he served on the Yale Law Journal and graduated in 1987. He clerked for federal judge George MacKinnon in Washington, D.C. and worked as an associate at Williams & Connolly.[5]
Career
Before his election to the Superior Court in 2011, Wecht served in Allegheny County government, holding elected executive and judicial offices since 1998. Wecht served as Allegheny County's elected register of wills and clerk of orphans' court from 1998 to 2003, and then trial judge from February 2003 until January 2012,[3][4] working extensively in the civil and family divisions. From 2009 to 2011, he served an administrative judge of the Family Division, where he was credited for implementing several reforms, including a conflict counsel program for juvenile delinquency cases, and a unified family court, in which the same jurist guides a family through its entire experience with the court.[4]
Wecht ran as a Democrat for Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2015,[1] and was part of a Democratic sweep of all three court vacancies, along with Kevin Dougherty and Christine Donohue. They defeated Republican candidates Judith Olsen, Michael George, and Anne Covey in a campaign that has been described by media outlets and advocacy groups as the "most expensive judicial election in U.S. history".[6][7] Wecht campaigned on a "five-point plan" to improve transparency and ethical standards in the Pennsylvania judiciary, calling for a ban on nepotism and gifts to judges, "mandatory ethics training" for judges, a requirement that judges state for the record why they are recusing themselves from a case, and the implementation of cameras in the courtroom except in the cases of child abuse and juvenile cases.[4]
In August 2018, Wecht partially concurred when the majority found that the criminal conviction of a rapper for making a song entitled "Fuck the Police" did not violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution because the song was found to contain true threats.[8][9]
Personal life
Wecht is married and has four children.[1] Wecht is Jewish and remains an active Pro-Israel activist.
References
- ^ a b c "David Wecht to seek state Supreme Court vacancy". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. December 4, 2014. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
- ^ Kraus, Scott; Sheehan, Dan; Assad, Matt (November 4, 2015). "Incumbents fare well in Lehigh Valley elections". The Morning Call. Archived from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
- ^ a b "Snapshot look at candidates for Pa. appellate courts". Delaware County Daily Times. Associated Press. November 3, 2015. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f "Get to know the candidates for state Supreme Court". LNP Media Group. October 31, 2015. Archived from the original on July 30, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
- ^ The Pennsylvania Manual. Vol. 16. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Department of Property and Supplies for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 2003. pp. 5–59. Archived from the original on 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
- ^ Bishop, Tyler (November 10, 2015). "The Most Expensive Judicial Election in U.S. History". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on December 13, 2015. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
- ^ Palazzolo, Joe (November 3, 2015). "Race for Pennsylvania Supreme Court Breaks Spending Record". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
- ^ Note, Recent Case: Pennsylvania Supreme Court Finds Rap Song a True Threat, 132 Harv. L. Rev. 1558 (2019)..
- ^ Commonwealth v. Knox, 190 A.3d 1146 (Pa. 2018).
External links
Statewide political officials of Pennsylvania | ||
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| U.S. senators |  | |
| State government | ||
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| Supreme Court |
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