Litigation

PA Merit Selection: ?What Are We Waiting For??

By Peter Hardin

Another newspaper says it is high time for Pennsylvanians to vote on adopting merit selection to choose appellate judges.

“Last year’s appellate court elections provided all the evidence anyone should need to realize that merit selection would be a far-better way to pick jurists for the three highest courts in Pennsylvania,” a Reading Eagle editorial contends.

The editorial cites more than $2 million raised by an unsuccessful candidate for the state Supreme Court, Democratic Judge Jack Panella. That sum “is a ridiculous amount of money for a candidate who is prevented by judicial canons from actually conducting a campaign in any true sense of the word,” the editorial adds.

Moreover, it continues, Judge Panella and the winning candidate, Joan Orie Melvin, raised nearly $4 million combined, “most of it donated by the very lawyers who argue cases before the state’s highest court.”

After pointing to rare bipartisan support for merit selection from the current Democratic governor and three Republican predecessors, the editorial concludes, “What are we waiting for?”

The current and former governors participated recently when Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, a Justice at Stake partner, released a poll showing a solid majority of Pennsylvanians?62 percent?favors replacing contested elections for appellate judges with merit selection (see Gavel Grab.)

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 22, 2010 (boomark / email).