Now hiring: Supreme Court justice, legal experience needed but, please, no porn

COULD THE end of one Pennsylvania Supreme Court fracas set the docket for a new court tussle?

Seamus McCaffery, a former Philadelphia police officer elected in 2007 to the state's highest court, retired yesterday, one week after his fellow justices suspended him for allegedly threatening to expose a colleague's racy and racist personal emails.

The question now: Who replaces McCaffery and, just as important, when is that pick made?

The state Constitution gives the governor the power to appoint a replacement, who must win the support of two-thirds of the state Senate's 50 members.

The Senate, on break for the Nov. 4 general election, has a single workday scheduled - Nov. 12 - before the end of the year.

With Democrat Tom Wolf leading Gov. Corbett by a healthy margin in most polling, Democrats in the Senate could stall action to replace McCaffery until January. Democrats hold 23 of the Senate's 50 seats, more than enough to block a two-thirds vote.

Corbett, speaking to the Pennsylvania Press Club yesterday as McCaffery's retirement letter landed on his desk, didn't have much to say about it.

"We all have a right to retire any time we want," Corbett told the crowd. "He exercised his."

Corbett said it was too soon to say what, if any, action he would take on the high-court vacancy.

Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan said yesterday that "there is no reason for this process to be rushed."

McCaffery, 64, made clear in his retirement letter that he is leaving the black robe behind after 20 years as a judge. He had been making $200,205 per year.

"In light of my immediate intention to embark on other professional endeavors and paths, I want to make clear that under no circumstances would I request or agree to take senior status in the Pennsylvania judicial system, nor would I ever be a candidate for appointment or election to any Pennsylvania judicial office in the future," McCaffery wrote.

That declaration left McCaffery in the clear with the state Judicial Conduct Board, which yesterday said it has dropped investigations into his behavior.

McCaffery has been in a long and rancorous feud with his fellow Philadelphian on the court, Chief Justice Ron Castille, who must step down on Dec. 31 because he has reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Castille last week acknowledged that he has been trying to oust McCaffery from the court.

Castille had raised questions about referral fees McCaffery's wife, lawyer Lise Rapaport, received from law firms.

Rapaport, who earned $84,179 per year as her husband's chief legal aide, also retired yesterday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office last week said an FBI review of those referral fees resulted in a decision to file no criminal charges.

Castille focused recently on explicit emails McCaffery sent and received while he was a judge.

McCaffery apologized for the emails in an Oct. 16 statement that quickly veered off into invective about Castille and "this latest cooked-up controversy."

Castille, who cast one of four votes to suspend McCaffery last Monday, suggested he might be a sociopath.

Those votes came after another justice, J. Michael Eakin, all but accused McCaffery of extortion.

McCaffery had been snared in the porn scandal blossoming at the state Attorney General's Office, leading to the resignations of four former top Corbett deputies.

Castille pushed to release details about McCaffery's emails.

Eakin, in a complaint filed with the state Judicial Conduct Board on Oct. 17, said McCaffery urged him to get Castille to back down on his public statements about the porn. Eakin claimed McCaffery said he was "not going down alone" and mentioned explicit and racist emails Eakin received.

Those emails were leaked that same week to the Daily News.

The justices, in the order suspending McCaffery, told the Judicial Conduct Board to determine within 30 days whether there was "probable cause to file formal misconduct charges" against him.

U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, the city's Democratic Party chairman, said McCaffery called him yesterday morning to let him know the retirement was coming. That caught Brady off guard.

"He just didn't think it was worth fighting, legally," Brady said. "It would cost him a lot of money. He didn't want to put his family through it."

McCaffery served 20 years in the Philadelphia Police Department before being elected as a Municipal Court judge in 1993.

He was elected to the Pennsylvania Superior Court in 2003.

He was due to stand for a retention election in 2017 for another 10-year term on the high court, where he could have served until mandatory retirement in 2020.

- Staff writer John Baer contributed to this report.

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