Arlin Marvin Adams (April 16, 1921 – December 22, 2015) was a

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts for the following districts: * District of Delaware * District of New Jersey * East ...

. As late as 2013 he served as counsel to Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, an
was listed
as a NAFTA adjudicator.

Early life and education

Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

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, ...

, Adams earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in 1941 from

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

, a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

in 1947, and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

degree from Temple in 1950. While at Penn, he served as editor-in-chief of the law review.Adams, Arlin Marvin
, Federal Judicial Center Profile

Early career

Adams worked in private legal practice in Philadelphia from 1947 until 1969. He also was a member of the faculty of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

from 1952 until 1956. He was a secretary of public welfare for the

Commonwealth of 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, Ma ...

from 1963 to 1966.

Federal judicial service

On September 22, 1969, President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

nominated Adams to a seat on the

that had been vacated by the decision by Judge Harry Ellis Kalodner to take senior status. The

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

confirmed Adams on October 1, 1969, and he received his commission on October 2, 1969. In 1971, President Richard Nixon came close to nominating Adams to the Supreme Court of the United States, but nominated William Rehnquist instead after the Third Circuit, in an opinion written by Adams, reversed the convictions of several nuns involved in an anti-Vietnam War protest. In 1975 Adams was considered by President Gerald Ford as a nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States. Adams was one of two finalists; Ford ultimately wound up successfully nominating the other finalist, John Paul Stevens. He was also mentioned as a potential Supreme Court nominee in 1987 for the seat vacated by Lewis Powell, for which

Robert Bork Robert Heron Bork (March 1, 1927 – December 19, 2012) was an American jurist who served as the solicitor general of the United States from 1973 to 1977. A professor at Yale Law School by occupation, he later served as a judge on the U.S. Cour ...

Douglas Ginsburg Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals *Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking * Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...

, and

Anthony Kennedy Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by Presid ...

were eventually nominated.

Retirement from the bench and later career

Adams retired outright from the bench (rather than taking

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

) on January 2, 1987. He returned to private practice, joining the firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP. Adams was well known for his post-judiciary roles in significant legal cases. In 1994, he conducted an investigation of the Pennsylvania attorney general for alleged criminal activity, and investigated allegations of improper medical research at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Soon after in 1995, he was appointed to serve as a trustee in the New Era bankruptcy case, at that time the largest nonprofit bankruptcy in history. He also served as the Chapter 11 Trustee in the successful reorganization of the Coram Healthcare Corporation in the Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1996. From 1998 to 2002, Adams served as independent counsel in an investigation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that uncovered widespread corruption.

Board positions, appointments and honors

Adams service to society includes both legal and community capacities. Adams was a member of the Board of the Pennsylvania, and had previously served as a member of the board and Chairman of the

Einstein Healthcare Network Einstein Healthcare Network is a private non-profit healthcare organization based in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania region of the United States. The healthcare network serves Greater Philadelphia and its flagship hospital is the Einstein Medical ...

, trustee for the William Penn Foundation, the National Constitution Center, and

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

and President of the congregation for

Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel is the sixth oldest Reform Jewish synagogue in the United States. It began in Philadelphia in 1847, and was at a number of locations in the city before building a massive structure on North Broad Street in 1891 ...

. He was a former chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association and past president of both the American Judicature Society and American Philosophical Society. He also was the former chair of th
U.S. Supreme Court Judicial Fellows Commission
He also briefly served as a co-trustee of the Roosevelt-Bentman Trust for American Voters. In 2001, Susquehanna University created th
Arlin M. Adams Center for Law and Society
and in 2005, with the support of the Annenberg Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania Law School established the Arlin M. Adams Professorship in Constitutional Law. The Drexel University School of Law established the Arlin M. Adams Professor of Legal Writing position in 2007 to recognize Adams' long career as a lawyer and judge.

Books authored

* ''Nation Dedicated to Religious Liberty: The Constitutional Heritage of the Religion Clauses'', Arlin M. Adams, Charles J. Emmerich, Warren E. Burger (University of Pennsylvania Press, August 1990) * ''Religion and the Public Good: A Bicentennial Forum '', William Lee Miller, Martin E. Marty, Arlin M. Adams (Mercer University Press, March 1989)

References

Sources

External links

Professional Biography on Schnader Harrison website

* ttp://forward.com/news/breaking-news/327753/arlin-adams-federal-judge-and-community-champion-dies-at-94/ Arlin M. Adams' obituary* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Arlin 1921 births 2015 deaths Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Pennsylvania lawyers Lawyers from Philadelphia Temple University alumni United States court of appeals judges appointed by Richard Nixon 20th-century American judges University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty