Sen Arlen Specter

Senator Arlen Specter (1930-2012) was Pennsylvania's senator from 1981 to 2011. Having been a Republican since 1965, he switched to the Democratic Party in 2009. Throughout his Senate career, he served on the Judiciary Committee, which he caired in the 109th Congress (2005--2007). Among his many other Senate duties, he was also a chairman of Intelligence Committee, the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. In 2007, Time magazine named him one of the Ten Best Senators.

The son of Jewish immigrants, Specter grew up in Kansas, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania, served as an editor of the law journal at the Yale Law School, and was a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. Arlen Specter died in October 2012.