Thomas G. Saylor (born December 14, 1946) is a former chief justice and associate justice of the

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme ...

, and a former judge of the

Superior Court of Pennsylvania The Superior Court of Pennsylvania is one of two Pennsylvania intermediate appellate courts (the other being the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania). It is based in Harrisburg. Jurisdiction The Superior Court hears appeals in criminal and most ...

. A member of the Republican Party, Saylor retired from his supreme court seat in 2021 at the constitutionally mandated judicial retirement age of seventy-five.

Formative years

Born in Meyersdale, Somerset County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, Saylor lived in Cumberland County for most of his life. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

in 1969, a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

Columbia University School of Law Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 1972, and a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

from the

University of Virginia School of Law The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law or UVA Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as part of his "academical v ...

in 2004.

Legal and public service career

Saylor worked as a prosecutor in Somerset County from 1972 to 1982, before serving as a Director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Consumer Protection from 1982 to 1983. He was First Deputy Attorney General for

from 1983 to 1987, and served on the

from 1993 to 1997. Saylor began service as a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on January 1, 1997, and became chief justice in 2015, when

Ronald D. Castille Ronald D. Castille (born March 16, 1944) served on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1994 to 2014 and was chief justice from 2008 to 2014. He stepped down from the court in 2014, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. He was the ...

left the court on reaching the mandatory retirement age. His initial salary was $209,329. Saylor retired from the supreme court on December 31, 2021. During his tenure, he authored more than four hundred majority opinions related to civil and criminal legal issues. His court colleagues subsequently granted him the honorary title of chief justice emeritus. In August 2018, Saylor wrote for the majority when it 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 The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...

because, he determined, the song contained

true threat A true threat is a threatening communication that can be prosecuted under the law. It is distinct from a threat that is made in jest. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that true threats are not protected under the U.S. Constitution based on three jus ...

s. According to

Common Pleas A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...

Judge Barry Feudale, Saylor complained to him that African American former Supreme Court Justice

Cynthia Baldwin Cynthia Baldwin (born February 8, 1945) is an American jurist who was a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after serving sixteen years as a Pennsylvania County Court judge. Baldwin was the first African-American woman elected to the Alleg ...

had "caused us a lot of trouble when she was on the Supreme Court because of her minority agenda.” In a 2019 affidavit, Feudale, who presided over the grand jury that indicted

Jerry Sandusky Gerald Arthur Sandusky (born January 26, 1944) is an American retired college football coach and convicted serial child molester. Sandusky served as an assistant coach for his entire career, mostly at Pennsylvania State University under Joe Pa ...

during the

Penn State child sex abuse scandal The Penn State child sex abuse scandal concerned allegations and subsequent convictions of child sexual abuse committed by Jerry Sandusky, an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team, over a period of at least fifteen years. ...

when Baldwin was the general counsel for

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

, suggested that Saylor was using alleged technical errors Baldwin had made during the case as a pretext for disciplinary hearings that were actually intended as harassment.

Post-Supreme Court career

Following his 2021 retirement from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Saylor was appointed to the newly created post of Judicial Scholar-in-Residence at the Thomas R. Kline Center for Judicial Education of the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Duquesne University. Effective on January 1, 2022, the position involves Saylor in Duquesne's development of "substantive and skill-based courses that meet the needs of Pennsylvania's more than 500 trial and appellate jurists," according to representatives of the Kline Center.

Awards and other honors

Saylor was awarded honorary doctor of law degrees by

Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (Ship or SU) is a public university in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Founded in 1871, it later became the first teachers college in Pennsylvania. ...

and the

Widener University School of Law Widener University Delaware Law School (Delaware Law School and formerly Widener University School of Law) is a private law school in Wilmington, Delaware. It is one of two separate ABA-accredited law schools of Widener University. Widener Univ ...

. In 2015, Saylor's hometown of Meyersdale named its community center after him.Kieta, Eric.
Maple City honors one of its own: Town names center after Meyersdale native Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor
" Somerset, Pennsylvania: ''The Daily American'', May 18, 2015, front page (subscription required).

References

External links

Official Supreme Court ProfileInduction ceremony of Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Saylor, Thomas 1946 births 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges Chief Justices of Pennsylvania Columbia Law School alumni Living people Pennsylvania Republicans People from Somerset County, Pennsylvania Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania University of Virginia School of Law alumni