Meyer Melvin Cardin (July 14, 1907 – July 12, 2005) was an American

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and politician who served as an

associate judge Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some state ...

on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City. He served one term in the

Maryland General Assembly The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives and the lower chamb ...

and was a member of the Cardin political family. His brother, son, and grandnephew have all been elected to state or national positions.

Early life and education

Cardin was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, the son of Anna and Harris Cardin,

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

immigrants. He grew up in a

row house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house (British English, UK) or townhouse (American English, US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings party ...

. His parents found employment with a

soft drink A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural and/or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a su ...

manufacturer. He attended

Baltimore City College Baltimore City College, known colloquially as City, City College, and B.C.C., is a college preparatory school with a liberal arts focus and selective admissions criteria located in Baltimore, Maryland. Opened in October 1839, B.C.C. is the thir ...

and the Army and Navy Prep school. Cardin received his law degree from the

University of Maryland School of Law The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (formerly University of Maryland School of Law) is the law school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and is located in Baltimore City, Maryland, U.S. Its location places Maryland ...

in 1929.

Career

After passing the state bar exam, he partnered with his older brother, Jacob Cardin, in the law firm of Cardin & Cardin. In 1935, Meyer Cardin was elected to the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, ...

for a single four-year term, from 1935 to 1939. Cardin was a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

. Cardin's judicial career began in 1955 when he was appointed Baltimore's Chief Police Magistrate. Two years later, he was named Chief Magistrate of the Baltimore Traffic Court. Later he served as Chairman of the Maryland Workman's Compensation Commission from 1958 to 1961, until Governor

J. Millard Tawes John Millard Tawes (April 8, 1894June 25, 1979), was an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party who was the 54th Governor of Maryland from 1959 to 1967. He remains the only Marylander to be elected to the three positions of Stat ...

appointed Meyer Cardin to the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City as an associate judge, a post he held from 1961 until his retirement in 1977. He returned to work in the city's Circuit Court in 1984, continuing to hear cases until 1994, when he was 87.

Personal life

Judge Meyer Cardin met Dora Green, a

school teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

, while visiting the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. The couple were married for 36 years until her death in 1972. He had two sons, U.S. Senator

Ben Cardin Benjamin Louis Cardin (born October 5, 1943) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Maryland, a seat he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. representati ...

, and Howard L. Cardin. Cardin and his second wife, Sylvia Jacobson, were married for 22 years until her death in 1998. An active participant in the

Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...

community and a 33rd-Degree

Mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...

, Meyer Cardin was a member of St. John's Lodge 34, Yedz Grotto, the Golden Eagle Square and Compass Club and the

Scottish Rite The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction in the United States often omits the ''and'', while the English Constitution in the United Kingdom omits the ''Scottish''), commonly known as simply the Sco ...

References

*Livermore Sarah, ed. ''The American Bench: Judges of the Nation.'' Reginald Bishop Foster & Associates, Inc. United States, (1985):195. '

External links

Photograph in the Maryland State Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardin, Meyer 1907 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American judges American Freemasons American people of Russian-Jewish descent Lawyers from Baltimore Maryland state court judges Members of the Maryland House of Delegates Jewish American state legislators in Maryland 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American lawyers Cardin family