Judge Manning was appointed to the Commission on June 18, 2002 to complete the remaining term of the late Judge Robert E. Dauer, and he was reappointed to the Commission for a full term in 2003 and 2005. He is a member of the Commission's Policy Committee. He received his B.A. from Dickinson College in 1969, and he received his J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law in 1972.  He was an Assistant District Attorney from 1973-1976 and an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1976-1988. He was the First Assistant U.S. Attorney in 1988 and named Senior Litigation Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice in 1986.  He has served as an Adjunct Law Professor at Duquesne University School of Law from 1989 to the present. Judge Manning was appointed to the Court of Common Pleas in April 1988, elected to a ten-year term in November 1989 and retained for a second term in 1999.

Judge Manning has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Allegheny County Bar Association for 17 years, was Chairman of its Bench-Bar Conference in 1985 and was the recipient of the Philip Werner Amram Award in 2002.