When you have a name that’s the same as a famous personality, it’s sure to cause, if not confusion, way too many comments.

Max Baer, the chief justice of Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, who died on Sept. 30, could tell you scores of anecdotes about him and his famous namesake, boxer Max Baer.

For the record, they were not related, but that didn’t stop many from thinking they were and commenting about how the name was the same. Justice Baer recalled that there were even some who wanted to challenge him to a boxing match when he was younger. He said he respectfully declined each invitation.

The number of comments diminished as he got older, especially since boxer Baer became less remembered. Those of us of, shall we say, octogenarian age and older remember boxer Baer as a former world heavyweight champion and fierce competitor back in the mid-1930s.

Baer was rated as number 22 on Ring magazine’s list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. He held the world heavyweight crown for one day less than one year, defeating champ Primo Carnera of Italy in 1934, then losing the crown to James J. Braddock in 1935.

But it was Baer’s defeat of German Max Schmeling which assured Baer’s place in history. It came in 1933 at a time when the Nazis had risen to power, and the German press said that it was unthinkable that Schmeling, a former world heavyweight champion, should lose to a non-Aryan. Baer’s father was Jewish. Fighter Baer went on to become a boxing referee and a minor actor in motion pictures. Baer’s brother, Buddy Baer, played Jethro on the hit TV series “Beverly Hillbillies.” Max Baer died at age 50.

Justice Baer’s untimely death came just months before his mandatory retirement of age 75. Baer would have been 75 on Dec. 24. He was elected to the Supreme Court for a 10-year term in 2003, and retained for another 10 years.

Because Baer was already scheduled for retirement, we voters were scheduled to select a new member of the state Supreme Court next year. In the meantime, Justice Debra Todd, who will be 65 on Saturday will become chief justice, a position she was scheduled to assume in December as Baer would have retired. Todd is now the longest-serving justice on the court having been elected in 2007 and retained for another term in 2017.

It is unlikely that outgoing Gov. Tom Wolf will be able to nominate a replacement for Baer because the current legislative session ends in about a month and a half and Wolf’s term-limited tenure ends a month after that. With the Republicans holding advantages in both houses of the General Assembly it is unlikely that a Democrat replacement would get the two-thirds vote needed in the Senate for confirmation. If that turns out to be the case, the new governor may appoint a replacement in 2023 or leave the seat vacant until the voters pick a winner in the General Election. As it is now, Democrats control the court, 4-2. Baer was and Todd is a Democrat.

Todd said Baer was an aggressive fighter for “fair and balanced justice.” She also called him a “tireless champion for children” who was “devoted to protecting and providing for our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.”

Republican legislators are not big fans of the current state Supreme Court. Because of rulings throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and others concerning the 2020 presidential election balloting, Republicans see the court as overly active and biased toward Democrats.

Republicans have introduced bills to curb the high court’s powers in determining cases involving elections, a tactic that is being pursued by other Republican-led legislatures in other states.

One thing that might cause Wolf to act now is the idea that no one particularly likes a court with an even number of justices - in this case six - because of the possibility of tie votes on key cases.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.