Judge Edward G. Smith was inducted as a Judge of the United States District Court in a stirring ceremony before an overflow crowd at the Northampton County Courthouse Friday. So many people were crammed into historic Courtroom No. 1 that part of the 600-person audience was forced to watch on closed circuit TV in an adjoining courtroom. Judge Legrome D. Davis, acting chief judge of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, administered the oath of office to Smith, as one of his three sons held the Bible. He was robed by his father.

In addition to Sen. Pat Toomey, the ceremony was attended by most of the Northampton and Lehigh county benches, along with many of the federal district court judges.

A Northampton County jurist since he was first elected in 2001, Smith is a 27-year veteran of the United States Navy, where he currently serves as a captain and as a military judge in the reserve component. His service took him to Iraq, where he was awarded the bronze star.

A Republican, Smith was nominated by President Barack Obama as judge for the Eastern District of Pa. on Aug. 1, 2013. He had the support of both of Pennsylvania's senators, and was confirmed in a 69-31 vote March 26. He will serve in the federal courthouse in Easton.

The Eastern District of Pennsylvania is one of the original 13 federal judicial districts created in 1789. Its first judge was appointed by George Washington. Smith is the 96th in what Judge Franklin S. Van Antwerpen called a "long line of black robes" over the past 220 years.

Unlike county judges, who are elected, appointments to the federal bench are for life.

Judge Van Antwerpen, the last Northampton County jurist to be selected to the federal bench in 1987, explained why. Though the vast majority of cases are heard in the state system; "[w]hen we need it, we have the independence of the federal system and its lifetime-tenured judges."

He pointed out that it is the federal courts who struck down segregation and who have upheld the First Amendment rights to free speech against comments that the judges themselves found offensive. He called Smith both an accomplished jurist and a true patriot who went to the Middle East at the risk of his own life.

President Judge Steve Baratta, who said Smith will be greatly missed in Northampton County, struggled to find what he called "Judge Smith stories." But the best he could come up with was someone having spotted him on a lawn tractor, in shirt and tie, cutting his grass.

The FBI, which does background checks on nominated federal jurists, was looking for Judge Smith stories too. One Saturday morning, they knocked on the door of one of Smith's best friends, attorney Joe Corpora. While Corpora's wife wondered what the FBI was doing at her door, Corpora came up with an embarrassing revelation about Smith, and one he recorded on video.

Years ago, when Smith's and Corpora's children were much younger, Smith came to his house dressed as Barney the Dinosaur and began singing "I love you."

"Do you know anything embarrassing?" asked the FBI.

"He doesn't sing or dance very well," answered Corpora.

Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Abe Kassis, incoming president of the Northampton County Bar Association, called Smith an officer and a gentleman who never forgot what it was like as a lawyer. He noted Smith's unfailing courtesy to everyone before him, a hallmark of Northampton County judges.

"He could sentence someone to 20 years in state prison and still have that defendant thank him on the way out because he was so nice about it," he joked.

"Believe half of what you heard," is what the modest Smith told the audience after taking the oath. He thanked attorney Ray DeRaymond, with whom he practiced for many years before becoming a judge.

"He taught me everything I know," Smith said. Everything good that has happened to him, Smith added, has been because of the good people around him, from secretarial staff to the sheriffs.