Excerpts From Statements on McCaffery

From the court order:

"The media has published reports containing allegations that: Justice McCaffery may have improperly contacted a Philadelphia Traffic Court official in connection with a traffic citation issued to his wife; Justice McCaffery may have acted in his official capacity to authorize his wife to accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in referral fees from plaintiffs' firms while she served as Justice McCaffery's administrative assistant; and Justice McCaffery may have attempted to exert influence over a judicial assignment on the Philadelphia Common Pleas bench outside the scope of his official duties.

"More recently, Justice McCaffery has publicly accepted responsibility for exchanging hundreds of sexually explicit e-mails with a member or members of the Office of Attorney General, which surfaced in the course of the attorney general's review of the handling of the Gerald Sandusky investigation."

From a concurring statement by Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille:

"The most recent misconduct of Justice McCaffery - forwarding sexually explicit pornographic e-mails to employees of the Attorney General's Office . . . has caused the Supreme Court to be held up to public ridicule. This conduct deserves the immediate action as implemented by this court today. It would be impossible for this court to function effectively while Justice McCaffery sits on this court. His so-called 'lapse in judgment' lasted, at least, for many years as an adult. It is more than a lapse in judgment - it has caused unmitigated turmoil in the justice system and has indirectly cost several state prosecutors and high-ranking state officials their public careers."

From a dissenting statement by Justice Debra McCloskey Todd:

"I strenuously dissent. It is obvious from recent events that our court is embroiled in turmoil and needs to act immediately. My disagreement with the majority of the court is with respect to what action we should take. The crisis in which we find ourselves is marked by fact-laden accusations, alleged impropriety, and obvious acrimony. This is precisely the type of conflict - perhaps the prototypical conflict - for which the citizens of our commonwealth, in response to a similar controversy over two decades ago, constitutionally created the independent Judicial Conduct Board and the Court of Judicial Discipline."

Statement of Dion G. Rassias, attorney for Justice Seamus P. McCaffery:

"Today's action against Justice McCaffery should surprise no one, given Chief Justice Castille's relentless crusade to destroy his career and reputation. We will continue in our efforts to expose the malicious intent behind this effort to take down Justice McCaffery. We are confident that he will be cleared of any wrongdoing and returned to the bench soon."

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