James T. McDermott (judge)

James T. McDermott (September 22, 1926 – June 21, 1992) was a Pennsylvania judge and politician who served on the state's Supreme Court from 1981 until his death in 1992.

[1][2] His maternal grandfather, James Genoe, was a Philadelphia Police captain, a fact later said to have contributed to McDermott's law-and-order approach on the bench.

[6] He was admitted to the bar in 1951 and practiced in the field of labor law at the firm he co-founded, McDermott, Quinn & Higgins.

[8][9] McDermott entered the political arena in 1958 when he ran for the Republican nomination for the federal House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 3rd district.

The race was a special election, called when councilman Victor E. Moore resigned his seat to become head of the Philadelphia Gas Works in September 1962.

[21] In his time on the bench, McDermott became known as a "hanging judge" who imposed harsh sentences on the criminals convicted in his court.

[25] In the general election in November, McDermott took the top spot with his fellow Republican nominee, William D. Hutchinson, winning the second open seat.

[26] In 1983, The Philadelphia Inquirer published a series of stories accusing McDermott and other supreme court justices of conflicts of interest.

[6] After a funeral at St. Augustine Church, he was buried alongside his wife at Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in Marple Township, Pennsylvania.