The lawsuit, seeking to overturn the state's ban on corporate campaign contributions, was filed last summer in U.S. District Court by a nonprofit corporation based in Virginia, the Center for Individual Freedom.

In an interview last week, Morganelli said Corbett should have defended the state law and battled the lawsuit in court.

Instead, Corbett settled, agreeing to a stipulated judgment that said the corporate-contribution ban would apply only to expenditures for "express advocacy," as it was narrowly defined in a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case - covering advertising that directly urges the election or defeat of candidates, using specific words like "elect" or "vote for."

Just before the general election last November, the Virginia foundation ran more than $1 million worth of television ads promoting Maureen Lally-Green, a candidate for the state Supreme Court.

The corporation's 30-second TV spots praised Lally-Green for "protecting children" and "cracking down on violent criminals" but never specifically mentioned the upcoming election.

Six months later, there's still been no identification of the donors who provided the $1 million to promote Lally-Green.

"Corbett basically eviscerated Pennsylvania law by his agreement," Morganelli said last week. "We are now stuck with this as a legal precedent. . . . The AG messed up. . . . He should never have stipulated as to what the law is. It is up to the Legislature and courts to say what the law is."

After the Lally-Green ads began running on television last October, Corbett filed a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court seeking to block them, claiming they were a violation of the settlement agreement.

But a Commonwealth Court judge refused to stop the ads, and last week a federal judge, Anita B. Brody, said the ads were fully consistent with Corbett's settlement agreement. Her opinion said that Pennsylvania taxpayers would have to reimburse the Virginia group, the Center for Individual Freedom, for its legal expenses defending the ads, estimated at $100,000 or more.

"We don't agree with the judge," said Corbett's spokesman, Kevin Harley. "We're reviewing the decision to decide whether we're going to appeal or not."

Harley contended that Morganelli, the district attorney in Northampton County, "does not understand either state or federal law." *