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| Ernest A. Bar | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ernest A. Bar |
| Birth date | 1929 |
| Birth place | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Death date | 2011 |
| Death place | Washington, D.C., United States |
| Occupation | Attorney, Judge, Civic Leader |
| Alma mater | Temple University, Harvard Law School |
| Notable works | Landmark civil rights litigation, public commissions |
| Awards | Presidential Medal of Freedom, American Bar Association Medal |
Ernest A. Bar was an American attorney, jurist, and civic leader whose career spanned mid-20th to early 21st century legal practice, public commissions, and civil rights advocacy. He combined roles in private practice, municipal counsel, and national advisory bodies, contributing to jurisprudence and policy in urban governance, civil liberties, and administrative law. Bar’s work intersected with major institutions and figures across the legal and political landscape of the United States.
Born in Philadelphia to a family active in local civic organizations, Bar attended public schools before matriculating at Temple University where he studied political science alongside contemporaries who later joined United States Congress staffs and municipal administrations. He earned a scholarship to Harvard Law School, where he studied under professors affiliated with the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) legal defense networks. At Harvard, Bar participated in clinical programs linked to the Civil Rights Movement and drafted briefs that paralleled work by lawyers in landmark cases at the United States Supreme Court and state courts across the Northeast United States.
Bar began his legal career in private practice with a firm that represented labor unions, municipal entities, and nonprofit organizations, collaborating with attorneys who had served in the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman era agencies. He later served as deputy counsel in the law department of the City of Philadelphia, handling litigation that involved the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and federal district courts under judges appointed by presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Lyndon B. Johnson. Bar’s appellate work brought him into contact with advocates from the American Bar Association and litigators associated with high-profile public interest firms such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Legal Aid Society.
Transitioning to national practice, Bar argued cases in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and filed amicus briefs coordinated with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and research centers at Columbia Law School and Yale Law School. He served as counsel to commissions established by mayors and governors, engaging with offices held by officials who later appeared in the cabinets of presidents like Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
Bar accepted appointments to advisory panels for the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement and state-level criminal justice commissions that included members from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Kennedy administration’s networks. He advised city councils in the Mid-Atlantic region on redevelopment projects involving partnerships with entities such as the Federal Housing Administration and private developers who had previously worked with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Bar maintained active relationships with politicians across party lines, contributing to policy task forces alongside figures affiliated with the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee at different times.
His participation in campaign-related legal strategy brought him into coordination with election law experts from institutions like Georgetown University Law Center and think tanks involved with voter access litigation that paralleled cases in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Bar was lead or co-counsel in litigation addressing police practices, school desegregation, and municipal liability, with decisions cited by panels of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and discussed in law reviews at Harvard Law School and University of Pennsylvania Law School. His courtroom work echoed themes from cases argued before the United States Supreme Court during the eras of Chief Justices Earl Warren and Warren E. Burger, and his briefs engaged with constitutional doctrines developed in precedents like those involving the Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence.
Bar’s legal legacy includes mentoring a generation of lawyers who later served as clerks to federal judges, professors at institutions such as Georgetown University and American University Washington College of Law, and senior counsel in agencies like the Federal Communications Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency. His written opinions, amicus briefs, and administrative reports are preserved in archives used by scholars at the Library of Congress and research centers within the Brookings Institution.
Over his career Bar received awards from bar associations and civic organizations, including honors presented by the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and municipal humanitarian awards bearing the names of civic leaders who had served under presidents such as John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. He was invited to deliver lectures at symposiums hosted by Columbia University, New York University School of Law, and the National Press Club.
Late in life he was recognized with a civilian medal awarded by a sitting president and received lifetime achievement acknowledgments from legal clinics linked to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and university legal aid societies.
Bar was married to a physician educated at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and had children who pursued careers in law, academia, and public policy at institutions such as Princeton University and Stanford University. He was active in civic cultural organizations including the Smithsonian Institution affiliates and local historical societies connected to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
He died in Washington, D.C., with commemorations held that included remarks from former colleagues who had served in the United States Senate, the House of Representatives, and municipal administrations. His papers are part of a collection made available to scholars at a university archive associated with Temple University and a national repository that collaborates with the Library of Congress.
Category:American lawyers Category:1929 births Category:2011 deaths