Longtime GOP Senate moderate Arlen Specter dies

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the outspoken Pennsylvania centrist whose switch from Republican to Democrat ended a 30-year career in which he played a pivotal role in several Supreme Court nominations, died Sunday. He was 82.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., right, meets with Supreme Court nominee Solicitor General Elena Kagan on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 13, 2010.

Specter, who announced in late August that he was battling cancer, died at his home in Philadelphia from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, said his son Shanin. Ove...