Pa. Justice's Bid for New Term Gets Opposition

Two men who were active in the successful effort to repeal the 2005 government pay-raise law have turned their sights on the state's high court, releasing a report Monday that argued the state's chief justice does not deserve another decade-long term on the bench.
 
Eric Epstein and Tim Potts said Chief Justice Ronald Castille has mismanaged aspects of the judicial system and mishandled important cases before his court, so voters should "put the `no' in November'' when he comes up for retention later this year.

They criticized his response to the juvenile justice corruption scandal in Luzerne County, his role in the troubled project to build a new family court building in Philadelphia, his oversight of that city's traffic court and other matters.
 
"Our court system is bizarre and Byzantine and secretive and all the rest,'' Potts said at a Capitol news conference, where he proposed that Castille join him for debate-like forums on the judicial system.
 
Castille said he was not necessarily opposed to the idea, but his schedule has been particularly busy now that the court is down to six members. Justice Joan Orie Melvin resigned following a February conviction on public corruption charges.
 
"If I had any time I might be interested in it,'' Castille told The Associated Press on Monday.
 
Castille is seeking another term even though he turns 70 next year, which is the age at which judges must either retire or take senior status. Lawsuits challenging that state constitutional provision are pending before the Supreme Court, which recently heard oral argument on the issue.
 
Castille said Potts and Epstein were "absolutely unfair'' in suggesting he failed to respond to warning signals about the Luzerne County "kids for cash'' scandal. The high court's first warning came through a petition by the Juvenile Law Center asking it to order Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. to enforce the children's constitutional rights, he said.
 
"As soon as that petition came to us, Ciavarella resigned from all juvenile matters in Luzerne County,'' Castille said. "So they got what they wanted.''
 
Federal prosecutors did not tell the Supreme Court that Ciavarella and Judge Michael Conahan were being investigated, so the high court passed a rule that requires judges to tell the chief justice if they are under investigation, Castille said.
 
He said another criticism, that the courts have allowed nepotism to corrupt the process by letting judges hire relatives, is the subject of a current study by the court. Epstein called the practice "a huge problem in Pennsylvania.''
 
"We're looking at the Code of Judicial Conduct, and that's one of the issues under review,'' Castille said.
 
Potts and Epstein regularly advocate for changes to Pennsylvania government, and Epstein said they were self-funding the report.
 
Castille said they "represent a point of view'' and noted a similar push to encourage voters to reject all judges up for retention in 2007 fell flat. The chief justice referred to them as "known gadflies.''
 
"This is America: free speech,'' Castille said.
 
The only Pennsylvania justice who failed win a retention election is Russell Nigro, who was turned out of office in 2005, almost a year before the high court threw out unvouchered expenses in the pay raise law but reinstated the higher salaries for the judicial branch that had been adopted, then repealed, by the Legislature.
 
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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