During the 1930s, Buffington became involved in a scandal involving his colleague on the Court of Appeals, Judge John Warren Davis. Buffington was found to have been signing opinions drafted by Davis, in cases in which Davis received bribes. Davis was forced out of office, but no formal action was taken against Buffington, who was described as being "aged, senile, and nearly blind" by that time. He took what is now called senior status, a form of semi-retirement, on June 1, 1938, and ceased hearing cases.[2]
Family
Buffington was the son of Ephraim and Margaret Chambers (Orr) Buffington,[3] and nephew to a well-known Pennsylvania judge of the same name.[citation needed] On January 29, 1885, he married Mary Alice Simonton, of Emmitsburg, Maryland.[3]
^[1] | Why Judges Resign: Influences on Federal Judicial Service, 1789 to 1992 | Emily Field Van Tassel | With Beverly Hudson Wirtz and Peter Wonders | Federal Judicial History Office | Federal Judicial Center | 1993 | [2]
^ abGeorge Thornton Fleming, History of Pittsburgh and Environs (1922), p. 860-61.
Sources
Van Tassel, Emily Field, et al., Why Judges Resign: Influences on Federal Judicial Service, 1789 to 1992 (Federal Judicial Center 1993), p. 23.