Gary L. Lancaster: Pitt Law Alumnus Takes on Historic Role Leading the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
Judge Gary L. Lancaster steps into a courtroom in downtown Pittsburgh in September 2009. He has a busy day ahead. He’s started a new job in the midst of the biggest international summit ever held in his city—the 2009 G-20 Summit. Visitors from around the world include the likes of U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Saudia Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Adbul Aziz Al Saud, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, among many others.
As the newly appointed chief judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Lancaster finds himself suddenly thrust into the international spotlight when several protestor-rights cases come his way.
He presides over a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the City of Pittsburgh, in which the ACLU alleges the city is unfairly denying demonstration permits. He hears a case in which the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Center for Constitutional Rights allege that local law enforcement has been harassing and carrying out unconstitutional searches and seizures of members of two G-20 protest groups; the plaintiffs seek an injunction against law enforcement officlals. (The rights of protestors in both cases were represented by Pitt Law Professor Jules Lobel.)
“We had never had anything like this in Pittsburgh before, so we had no template to go by,” says Lancaster of the G-20 Summit, explaining that he was striving to maintain the delicate balance between public safety and free speech.
In his first weeks on the job as chief judge, Lancaster enters the history books through his rulings on G-20, but he also makes history on another count. Lancaster becomes the first African American chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
While honored and humbled by the historic nature of his appointment, Lancaster acknowledges the hard work and years that he put in helped get him where he is today. A quick look at his résumé makes it seem, in retrospect, as if Lancaster’s career had always been leading toward his appointment as chief judge, but it didn’t start out that way.
Growing up in Brownsville, Pa., Lancaster had different ambitions for himself. He attended Slippery Rock University, with plans to join the school’s excellent physical education program and become a basketball coach. But, as the late ‘60s unfolded, Lancaster found himself caught up in the current of the times. While he was at Slippery Rock, both Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, the civil rights movement was in full swing, and the country’s collective social consciousness was roused.Lancaster decided to pursue a career that would allow him to make a difference—law. “Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was my hero,” Lancaster says.
So, in 1971, after graduating from Slippery Rock with a Bachelor of Science degree in secondary education, Lancaster entered the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He still fondly recalls his time at Pitt Law. Lancaster made good friends (some of whom, he says, he still keeps in touch with today), laid a strong educational foundation that prepared him well for his career, and built relationships with professors such as the memorable Dean William Edward Sell—a “larger-than-life” figure, says Lancaster—who taught his contracts and business law classes.
When he graduated from Law School in 1974, Lancaster began work as regional counsel for the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, focusing on civil-rights and equal-opportunity issues.
“I remember the first big case I argued,” says Lancaster. “We got a local public golf course to accept women members for the first time.” He also recalls a suit he took on for a school teacher who wanted to use her sick leave for maternity leave. (There was no such thing as maternity leave benefits at this time.) “We took them to task and got it done,” Lancaster says with relish.
Next, he moved on to the DA’s office, a position that he highly recommends to any law grad wanting to become a trial lawyer. As assistant district attorney for Allegheny County from 1976 to 1978, Lancaster amassed experience in nearly 100 trials—both jury and nonjury. He moved to a private law firm in Pittsburgh in 1978, where he spent 10 years, specializing in criminal and civil litigation, representing major corporations such as Conrail, Ford Motor Company, and Kerosun.
In 1987, Lancaster took on a new challenge. He accepted the appointment as a federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, an eight-year term that kicked off what would become a long and distinguished federal judicial career.
“It was a very interesting job,” recalls Lancaster. “We did all of the preliminary criminal procedures, initial hearings, setting bail. And, of course we also tried cases.” As a magistrate judge, Lancaster would write up a report with a recommendation on the case after hearing it, and one of the district judges would review his report and make the final call on the case’s outcome.
In 1993, thanks to a nomination by President Bill Clinton that was confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote, Lancaster was elevated to district judge, with a lifelong term. Now, he bore the responsibility and the substantial work of interpreting the United States constitution and statutes—and could ultimately make those judgment calls on the cases he used to simply make recommendations for.
“It’s challenging and important work,” says Lancaster. “We heard every kind of case you can think of—patent cases, insurance fraud, civil rights, employment disputes, bankruptcy, social security, product liability, criminal cases … the full spectrum of cases falls within our district courts.”
Sometimes, those cases land Judge Lancaster’s name in the papers, such as when he presided over the criminal trials of a self-proclaimed leader of the KKK who made and distributed pipe bombs, and of an Oakmont doctor who prescribed pain medications to women who were drug addicts. His rulings in civil cases have also consistently garnered media attention; these have included a challenge to Allegheny County’s use of new electronic voting machines in the 1996 general elections, a woman’s suit against the McKeesport Police Department and School District stemming from her disappearance in 1996, and a woman’s suit against Armstrong and Westmoreland Counties and Penn State University after her four-year-old niece was murdered by the niece’s parents. Recently, Lancaster’s March 2009 decision that Allegheny County’s sex-offender-residency ordinance be preempted by state law was back in the spotlight when the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to decide the issue.
Lancaster served as district judge for a decade and a half, until September 2009, when he was appointed to the highest position within the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania—chief judge. As chief judge, Lancaster is head administrator of the district, advising his district judges, handling budgets, managing personnel, and continuing his previous commitment to committee work. (In the recent past, Lancaster served as chair of the district’s Space and Facilities Committee, with primary responsibility for overseeing the $75-million renovation of the district courthouse; he also was part of the United States Judicial Conference Committee of Judicial Resources for the past five years, appointed by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Lancaster remains involved with the committee that drafts standard civil jury instructions for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.)
Though he’s only been chief judge for a few short months, Lancaster has a firm grip on the big picture. He points to the many positive changes already implemented in the district—filing is fully electronic, with a mandatory Alternative Dispute Resolution program in place; the pretrial and probation departments have been combined, which promises to save millions in dollars for taxpayers; and the renovation of the courthouse is largely complete. These changes he attributes to the strong leadership of his predecessor, Donetta Ambrose.
With these big-picture changes in place, Lancaster looks forward to delving into the intricacies of his new job—with or without the excitement of international publicity he experienced early on. Although Lancaster found himself on the world stage in his first few weeks on the job with the G-20 Summit in town, he’s still in the spotlight every day. Both the historic nature of his position as the first African American chief judge and his role as the district’s authority on interpreting constitutional law place Lancaster in the public eye, but it doesn’t bother him. Doing the job and doing it well is a skill he’s been perfecting since he graduated from Pitt Law more than three decades ago.
Asked how he feels about being chief judge, Lancaster says, simply: “I’m honored and proud to have this opportunity to serve the court.”