Clarence Charles Newcomer (January 18, 1923 – August 22, 2005) was a
United States district judge
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...
of the
for more than 33 years.
Education and career
Newcomer was born in
Mount Joy,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, to Clarence S. and Clara Charles Newcomer. He graduated from
Mount Joy High School in 1941.
Newcomer entered the
V-12 Navy College Training Program
The V-12 Navy College Training Program was designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II. Between July 1, 1943, and June 30, 1946, more than 125,000 participants were enrolled in 131 colleg ...
, and was a
United States Naval Reserve
The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2004, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called reservists, are categorized as being in either the S ...
Lieutenant of an amphibious
landing craft
Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. ...
in the
Pacific Theater during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, from 1943 to 1946.
During that time he earned an
Artium Baccalaureus degree from
Franklin & Marshall College in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster ( ) is a city in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 58,039 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, eighth-most populous ci ...
, in 1944, where he was a member of
Sigma Pi
Sigma Pi () is a collegiate fraternity in North America. As of 2021, it had more than 5,000 undergraduate members and over 118,000 alumni. The fraternity is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
Founded on February 26, 1897, at Vincennes Uni ...
fraternity.
He then received a
Juris Doctor
A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...
from
Dickinson School of Law (now
Pennsylvania State University - Dickinson Law
Penn State Dickinson Law, formerly Dickinson School of Law, is a Public university, public law school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It is one of two separately accredited law schools of Pennsylvania State University.
History
The Law School of ...
) in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 United States census ...
, in 1948.
He married Jane Moyer Martin of Lancaster on October 2, 1948, with whom he had three daughters.
Newcomer lived in, and was in private practice in,
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1950 to 1971.
From 1948 to 1950 he was with the law firm of Arnold, Bricker & Beyer in Lancaster.
From 1950-57, he was a solo practitioner, later becoming a partner in the law firm of Rohrer, Honaman, Newcomer & Musser.
He was a special deputy commonwealth attorney general of Pennsylvania from 1953 to 1954.
He was an assistant district attorney of
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, from 1960 to 1964, and a First Assistant District Attorney from 1964-68.
He was District Attorney of Lancaster County from 1968 to 1972, while he was also a partner with the law firm of Newcomer, Roda & Morgan in Lancaster.
He lived in
Stone Harbor, New Jersey, and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
.
Federal judicial service
Newcomer was nominated by President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
on November 17, 1971, to a seat on the
vacated by Judge
Charles William Kraft Jr. He was confirmed by the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
on November 23, 1971, and received his commission on November 30, 1971. He assumed
senior status on January 19, 1988, but maintained a full case load.
Newcomer served in that capacity until his death on August 22, 2005, from
melanoma
Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer; it develops from the melanin-producing cells known as melanocytes. It typically occurs in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye (uveal melanoma). In very rare case ...
at his home in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.
During his career as a federal judge, Newcomer presided over a number of mob and
public corruption cases.
In 1979, he presided over a case in which a Philadelphia businessowner attempted to blow up his own factory to collect money for insurance fraud.
In 1980, he ended
Topps Chewing Gum's exclusive right to sell
baseball card
A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s, they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, s ...
s, allowing the
Fleer Corporation to compete in the market.
[Douglas Martin (August 28, 2005)]
"Clarence Newcomer, 82, Longtime Federal Judge,"
''South Florida Sun Sentinel''.
In 1985, Newcomer criticized the
Philadelphia Police Department
The Philadelphia Police Department (PPD, Philly PD, or Philly Police) is the police agency responsible for law enforcement and investigations within the County and City of Philadelphia. The PPD is one of the oldest municipal police agencies, f ...
for indiscriminately arresting a number Spanish-speaking people after an officer was killed, calling the arrests "unlawful" and "disgraceful".
In 1993 he ruled that a law firm's refusal to promote a female associate to partner violated
Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...
.
In 1994, Newcomer invalidated a Pennsylvania State Senate election of
William G. Stinson he found to be overwhelmingly tainted by
election fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...
, and declared
Bruce Marks the winner, after finding that "substantial evidence was presented establishing massive
absentee ballot fraud, deception, intimidation, harassment and forgery."
He ruled in 1997 that states cannot discriminate against new residents by paying them lower
welfare benefit
Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance p ...
s than they pay longtime residents.
Newcomer presided over a 2005 trial in which a jury awarded residents displaced by the 1972
MOVE bombing by the police a $12.83 million verdict against the City of Philadelphia.
Among Newcomer's law clerks was
Peter York Solmssen, from 1980 to 1982; Solmssen later became General Counsel of
Siemens AG
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the posit ...
.
"Peter Y. Solmssen,"
One Young World.
References
Sources
*
External links
* Daniel Rubin (August 25, 2005)
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', Henry Goldman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newcomer, Clarence Charles
1923 births
2005 deaths
Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
People from Stone Harbor, New Jersey
United States district court judges appointed by Richard Nixon
21st-century American judges
20th-century American naval officers
United States Navy personnel of World War II
People from Mount Joy, Pennsylvania
People from Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lawyers from Philadelphia
Deaths from melanoma in the United States
Sigma Pi members
Lawyers from Cape May County, New Jersey