While seconded to the court in 2008, he cast the deciding vote in Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health, a ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in Connecticut.

[2] Born in 1942 in New Haven, Connecticut, to parents who had moved northwards from North Carolina, Harper was raised by his mother and grandmother[3] and grew up in the Newhallville and Dixwell inner-city neighborhoods.

On May 22, 1997, Governor John G. Rowland nominated Harper to the Connecticut Superior Court, and he took the oath office on July 7, 1997.

On January 5, 2005, Governor Jodi Rell nominated Harper to the Connecticut Appellate Court.

[3] While standing in for recused Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers on the Connecticut Supreme Court in 2008, Harper cast the deciding vote in the case of Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health.

[2] Active in his profession and the community throughout his judicial career, Harper served twelve years as president of the New Haven Legal Assistance Association’s Board of Directors.

He served as a clinical tutor at Yale Law School and on the advisory board for the legal studies program at the University of New Haven.