Miscellaneous

Tit for Tat in PA?

By Anne Skove, Esq.

We've given the League of Women Voters (LWV) much virtual ink over the past week. Now comes a very different side of that organization: the Pennsylvania LWV is suing the state's (really, commonwealth's) former chief justice.

Lest you think the LWV is limited to hosting free lunches and town hall meetings, promoting citizen involvement, educating voters (for better or for worse), and cranking out white papers, here is the story.

Former Pennsylvania Chief Justice Cappy is being accused of making a behind-the-scenes deal with legislators. The Pennsylvania LWV claims he agreed to trade a pro-slot-machine ruling for judicial pay raises. (You're thinking: "What would Chief Judge Kaye Do?" and pining for some letters to the editor about judicial independence right about now!)

How does the LWV know all this? Unnamed sources, all of them apparently legislators. Supposedly they will come forward in court, but have not yet done so. See Idea of Cappy Being Right about Lawsuit is Gloomy, Paul Carpenter, Morning Call (May 25, 2008), for a Cappy-hating journalist's lament that the suit may indeed be baseless.

One editorial calls for the legislators to come forward now, in the name of due process: Lawsuit Sources Should Go Public, Scranton Times-Tribune (May 23, 2008). (Note to Scrantonians: every time we hear the theme song and watch the opening credits from The Office, we want to move to your town!)

See also Lawsuit Against Cappy Strikes a Political Nerve, Peter Jackson, AP/York Sunday News (May 24, 2008), in which a law professor notes that the proper forum for this mess is not the courts but rather the disciplinary process.

And, see the Pennsylvania LWV's press release (May 23, 2008). They call their argument against the former chief "fairly unremarkable and simple." They criticize the current chief's "call for sanctions [against the LWV's attorney] the day after a Complaint is filed" as "inappropriate" and an "attempt to truncate the federal process."

Full disclosure from court-o-rama: we've worked with former CJ Cappy and court staff on various things in the past and always found them to be helpful, brainiac-smart, and personable. We note this case not as a slam against them but because we've never seen anything like it. What kind of court-o-rama would we be if we ignored this?

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on May 25, 2008 (boomark / email).