• Smith presided over the 1997 case of a Pennsylvania investment advisor accused of defrauding school districts and local governments of millions of dollars. At the time, Smith's wife, Karen, was a vice president of a bank that held most of the missing funds, and she and Smith jointly owned hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of stock in both the bank and its holding company. Smith recused himself from the case after one month, but not before issuing orders that may have benefited the bank by partly shielding it from creditors' attempts to recover their lost funds. The school districts and local governments eventually gained access to their money; in 1999, the bank's holding company settled lawsuits filed by more than 40 school districts for $51 million. However, Smith's decision to rule on the case without disclosing his financial interest in the bank was, at the very least, a significant lapse of judgment. At worst, it was a serious ethical violation. (Source: Washington Post, Feb. 20, 2002)

• In a suit brought by the federal government against the Ebensburg Center, a state-operated residential home for the developmentally disabled, Smith ruled in Aug. 1995 that the state was not obligated to improve the lives of the developmentally disabled, but only to provide a minimal level of care. The facts of the case include instances of ants and maggots on food and residents, residents being confined to a wheelchair for hours with diapers unchanged, injuries sustained due to insufficient treatment for epilepsy, over-medicating, and many more complaints.

• In Metzar v. Playskool, Judge Smith dismissed all counts of product liability claim stemming from a choking death of a 15 month-old child, claiming that the choking hazard related to certain products for children is so obvious that no warning is necessary. The 3rd Circuit panel reversed the decision.

• In an article on judges being influenced by trips funded by organizations opposing environmental regulation, Smith is listed as having taken 10 trips.

• In Schafer v. Board of Public Education, Smith ruled in favor of the School Board's family leave policy which entitled women, but not men, to one year unpaid leave for childbirth or child rearing. The 3rd Circuit reversed, finding that "child rearing by a mother or child rearing by a father should be on the basis of full parity."

• In Qurin v. City of Pittsburgh, Smith struck down Pittsburgh's hiring preference that was intended to overcome the effects of past discriminatory hiring practices of women firefighters. Smith ruled that affirmative action is inefficient and ignored the Supreme Court precedent to use "intermediate scrutiny" when deciding gender discrimination cases.

• In a 1993 speech to the Federalist Society's Pittsburgh chapter, Smith argued that the Violence Against Women Act was unconstitutional because the issue of domestic violence lacked "substantial national consequences."

Sources:
National Partnership for Women and Families
Alliance for Justice
NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund

last updated 5/6/03