Litigation

A Call for Cleaning up PA Judicial Elections

By Peter Hardin

Public appeals for merit selection of judges in Pennsylvania keep growing. One of the latest examples: An Allentown Morning Call column that urges an end to “a judicial stench.”

Columnist Paul Carpenter says he talked to Lynn Marks of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, who furnished him “stacks of documents listing who gave money to Supreme Court candidates. The lists are dominated by hundreds of lawyers, law firms and lobbyists with ties to law firms having business before the Supreme Court.”

PMC is a partner of Justice at Stake. Marks told the columnist that Pennsylvania citizens shouldn’t take pride in leading the nation for spending in state judicial elections. ”Each dollar raised and spent raises yet another doubt in voters’ minds about whether or not justice is for sale,” she said.

Carpenter looked over the documents. He salts his column with examples of campaign donations that he finds iffy, at best. Here’s how he sums up forthrightly:

“The stench of this court, and our other appellate courts, is overpowering.

“That stench can be ended only one way — the merit selection of appellate judges, instead of letting their elections depend on millions of dollars in ‘contributions’ from lawyers and others with a stake in how these courts rule.”

To learn more about the debate in Pennsylvania over merit selection, check out Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).