Pennsylvania

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports on legislation that would change how judges are selected in Pennsylvania. Judges are "not like other politicians, who knock on doors for votes, run races with more media coverage and compile easily-digestible records of their votes," and many voters do not know about judicial candidates in any great depth, the paper reports.

"Proponents of the change, including former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, say judges' jobs shouldn't depend on fundraising prowess and popularity," the paper further reports.

Joan Orie Melvin, the former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice convicted of political corruption, had her entire sentence suspended today, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Judge Lester G. Nauhaus ordered the change because the Pennsylvania Superior Court suspended part of his unusual sentence ordering Orie Melvin to write apologies on a picture of herself in handcuffs to every judge in Pennsylvania.  The Post-Gazette reported the judge said in court, "'“She’s not serving my sentence! And the problem I have with that is she’s banking credit for time served and I will not allow it!”' Orie Melvin's defense counsel argued the trial judge does not have jurisdiction to change her sentence, which is under appeal.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the trial judge who sentenced Joan Orie Melvin, a former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice convicted of political corruption, has now threatened to suspend all of her sentence. Orie Melvin is appealing the part of her sentence ordering her to write letters of apology to every judge in the state on a photograph of herself in handcuffs. That part of the sentence was halted while the appeal is pending. Allegheny Court of Common Pleas Judge Lester Nauhaus will have the case back in court tomorrow.

When the attorney for an apartment-building developer sent 52 Right-to-Know requests to a Pennsylvania township, that has not been without costs, the Reading Eagle reports. "Each request has led to minutes, hours or even weeks of digging out records, sending emails or conversing with attorneys - all of it tapping limited resources and money available to the small government entities," the Reading Eagle further reports. (The underlying dispute is over sewerage for the proposed apartments.)

Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, told the newspaper the answer to those costs is to have documents uploaded onto government websites as a matter of course.

Legislation to amend the five-year-old legislation is currently pending in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
 

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has stayed part of the sentence of a former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice convicted of political corruption, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Joan Orie Melvin, who is appealing her conviction, won't have to write letters of apology until her appeal is disposed of. The court reasoned that, if Orie Melvin's succeeds in getting a new trial, "'it is possible that her apology letters could be used as evidence against her,"' according to the Post-Gazette.

 

The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board once called for the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to resign because a lawyer on the Philadelphia family court project was revealed to have a conflict of interest by becoming a co-developer. Now the editorial board has endorsed Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille for retention even though he can only serve one more year until forced to retire because of his age. The board wrote: "Granted, in the kids-for-cash case and others, the court's reforms have come slowly and on the heels of probes by the press, public-interest groups, and authorities. But combined with a tougher stance on judicial discipline, such substantive reforms constitute a powerful argument for RON CASTILLE's continued service, which is subject to a retention vote on Tuesday. The chief justice might not qualify as a reformer in every state, but in Pennsylvania, he does."

The Republican majority leader of the Pennsylvania Senate is weighing several changes to the state's five-year-old right-to-know law, according to a report from The Harrisburg Patriot-News.

The proposed changes include:

- making state-affiliated universities like Penn State subject to the law in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal;

- controlling the number of right-to-know requests from prisoners (although carving out a class of requestors could create bad precedent);

- making the Office of Open Records an independent agency;

- allowing local governments to deny allegedly "unduly burdensome" requests.
 

Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille will only be able to serve one more year if retained by Pennsylvania voters next month. Castille, a Republican, argued continuity on the high court will benefit Pennsylvania during a “'critical period as it recovers from the loss of one justice to a criminal prosecution and with another justice currently the subject of a federal criminal investigation,”' Castille said in prepared remarks provided to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Joan Orie Melvin is the justice who was removed and Justice Seamus P. McCaffery is the justice who allegedly is under investigation.

Justice Max Baer, a Democrat, also is up for retention and could only serve four more years.

Another settlement has been reached in the class action brought by the kids imprisoned in juvenile detention facilities after two Pennsylvania judges were given cash by the facilities' owners, The Scranton Times Leader reports. "Three companies behind the private, for-profit juvenile detention and treatment facilities at the heart of the scandal that sent two former Luzerne County judges to jail have reached a settlement with numerous juveniles and parents, promising to put $2.5 million into an account to be disbursed for legal fees and to the families and individuals who are part of the class-action suit," The Times Leader also reports.

(My thanks to my husband, Jason Rearick, for flagging this development for me.)