John Baer: Judicial campaigning under the rule of flaw
THE NASTY RACE for state Supreme Court is making yet another strong case for not electing statewide judges. Pennsylvania, no surprise, is among only a handful of states with partisan judicial elections at all levels.
THE NASTY RACE for state Supreme Court is making yet another strong case for not electing statewide judges.
Pennsylvania, no surprise, is among only a handful of states with partisan judicial elections at all levels.
The others? Such progressive giants as Alabama, Louisiana, Illinois, Texas and West Virginia, the state with the lowest percentage of college grads in the nation.
As for those mewling and whining, "Oh, we want to keep our vote"? Really, do you? Then why does turnout in judicial elections run around minus-4 percent?
Given what Pennsylvanians do with their vote, we should have merit selection not only for the state bench but also for the Legislature. In fact, for the Legislature we should try random selection. Would we be worse off?
But I digress.
The Supreme Court election is Tuesday. It pits Republican Joan Orie Melvin, of Pittsburgh, against Democrat Jack Panella, of Easton. Both now sit on state Superior Court.
Orie Melvin blasts Panella for taking big bucks, as in $1 million, from Philly trial lawyers calling themselves (laughingly, I assume) Committee for a Better Tomorrow. I suppose it's a better name than Committee for Slower Ambulances.
Melvin says Panella, by accepting such donations, is practicing "pay-to-play" and encouraging "justice for sale." And when asked about the fact that she solicited the same group and also took its money, as in $100,000 or more, she argues, yeah, well, she didn't take as much.
Reminds me of an old Groucho Marx punch line: "We've already established what you are. Now we're just haggling over price."
Panella, meanwhile, runs an ad saying Melvin wants to crush women's rights and threaten their safety.
"Warning for women," the ad says, "only Panella will protect women in their healthcare decisions."
Orie Melvin is proudly pro-life so I figure that's what the ad's about (and I'm sure it is).
But when I ask, I'm referred to a May Superior Court case involving consensual sex between a physician and a female patient with psychological problems who says she got worse thereafter.
The court ruled in the woman's favor, suggesting she might well have a case of medical malpractice. Orie Melvin dissented.
Sounds bad. But the dissent was based on interpretation of law as applied in similar cases and suggested that while the (general practitioner) doc's acts were "unethical," they don't constitute medical malpractice. A woman, former Judge Maureen Lally-Green, wrote the dissent and Orie Melvin joined it.
Seems a stretch that disagreeing on points of law in a case of consensual whoopee endangers women's rights and safety.
But then Orie Melvin ties Panella, a former member of the Judicial Conduct Board, to the Luzerne County cash-for-kids scandal in which judges took bribes to send kids to private jails. She all but paints him as personally shackling, imprisoning and feeding gruel to the victims. "Jack Panella could have stopped the abuses," her ad says.
It's just that the Associated Press last month quoted the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case as saying the board acted properly in '06, quickly forwarding an anonymous complaint. And yesterday, Panella's campaign released a letter from five former board members saying the same thing. Seems a stretch to lay the collapse of a county system at the feet of a single state judge.
Both candidates are veterans in robes. Neither can claim innocence in court problems or silly statewide judicial elections. Panella's been a judge for 18 years, Orie Melvin for 24 years.
So when you see judicial campaigns driven by special-interest-funded ads that stretch credulity, or hear Orie Melvin insist, "I'm no insider" (which is like Bret Favre saying he's a rookie since he's on a new team), ask yourself if there just might be a better way to pick the people who sit on our highest court. *
Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com.
For recent columns, go to