Sprague, former Pa. justices drop challenge to retirement age referendum

After months of pursuing legal challenges, two former Supreme Court justices and Philadelphia attorney Richard Sprague will not appeal a judge's decision to dismiss their suit that sought to declare unconstitutional a November ballot referendum that raised the state's judicial retirement age to 75, Sprague's firm announced Friday.

Sprague, former Justices Ronald D. Castille and Stephen Zappala Jr., and others had argued that the question's wording was changed at the eleventh hour by the Republican-controlled legislature to trick voters into approving the question. But U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani dismissed the challenge last month.

"While we continue to believe, as many others agree, that the ballot question was unlawfully deceitful, we will not appeal Judge Mariani's decision," Sprague's firm said in a statement. "At this point, we feel that pursuing the matter further would be unproductive. Moreover, a continued legal challenge to the wording of the ballot question would cast doubt over the results of the recent election ... which would be unfair to judges whose terms would have otherwise expired at the end of 2016."

In his ruling, Mariani said Pennsylvania voters were given ample notice by state officials of what the question was seeking to change. If voters still were confused, they had access to other materials that further explained the measure's intent, he wrote.

His decision followed months of wrangling in state courts, with the state Supreme Court deadlocking on the matter.

The original question asked voters whether the retirement age for Pennsylvania judges should be raised from 70 to 75. The revised wording pushed by the GOP asked voters only if they believed judges should retire when they turn 75, leaving out the fact that judges had been required to retire when they turned 70.

The referendum was approved narrowly by voters on Nov. 8.