Baer was elected to serve in the New York Supreme Court for New York County in 1982 and served until 1992. While serving as a state trial judge, he was among the first in the United States to rule that a same-sex couple could be considered a family, so that the surviving member of the couple could benefit from tenant protections under the New York Rental Control laws. Although his decision was reversed by the Appellate Division, the Court of Appeals agreed with him in the landmark case of Braschi v. Stahl Associates Co. He was then Executive Judicial Officer for the from 1992 to 1994.
; United States v. Bayless Judge Baer found his judicial career in a firestorm in 1996 when he issued an opinion that suppressed evidence in a drug case in the case of United States v. Bayless, 913 F. Supp. 232. At the hearing, Judge Baer found that based on the testimony of the junior officer who claimed to have witnessed a drug transaction and the videotaped confession of the defendant, Carolyn Bayless, the police did not have reasonable suspicion sufficient for the arrest. In response to this ruling, two hundred members of Congress wrote to President Bill Clinton demanding that he seek Judge Baer’s resignation. White House Press SecretaryMike McCurry weighed in with a threatening statement, but later changed course when Second Circuit Judges, led by Chief Judge Jon Newman, excoriated the other two branches of government for their clearly unconstitutional demands and pointed out how the criticism had reached a level that threatened judicial independence. In the end, Judge Baer reversed his ruling following a rehearing during which the government presented a fuller case and the defendant inexplicably took the stand. See US v. Bayless, 921 F. Supp. 211. Judge Baer was criticized for this decision as well. He wrote about the experience in his book Judges Under Fire: Human Rights, Independent Judiciary, and the Rule of Law. ; Class Action Counsel Diversity For requesting evidence of racial and gender diversity among counsel selected to provide representation in class action lawsuits, Judge Baer has been accused of "using his judicial authority to pursue his own personal socio-political agenda." Objectors to a class settlement from 2011 challenged the practice on appeal, but in a summary order the Second Circuit dismissed the issue for lack of standing: "Although objectors allege that staffing a case with an eye to diversity 'may interfere with ability to provide the best representation for the class,' they never contend that class counsel's representation was actually inferior." Summary Order at 8-9, Blessing v. Sirius XM Radio Inc., No. 11-3696 . The case and Judge Baer's class action diversity practice then came before the US Supreme Court, where in denying a petition for writ of certiorari, Justice Samuel Alito, concurring in the denial, nonetheless issued a decision criticizing Judge Baer's practices, for various stated reasons, warning "the meaning of the Court's denial of the petition should not be misunderstood." Martin v. Blessing, 134 S. Ct. 402.
Death
Baer died on Tuesday, May 27, 2014.
Case list
Smith v. Islamic Emirate of Afg.,
US v. Bayless, 913 F. Supp. 232 ; revised 921 F. Supp. 211
Authors Guild v. HathiTrust
Publications
New York Evidentiary Foundations, with Randolph N. Jonakait, E. Stewart Jones Jr., and Edward J. Imwinkelried.
Judges Under Fire: Human Rights, Independent Judiciary, and the Rule of Law.
