Inquirer Editorial: Response to Chief Justice Castille

This paper has published several articles and commentaries about Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille's acceptance of gifts - travel and entertainment - from lawyers and law firms that do and could appear in his courtroom. We have also written extensively about the location and construction of a new Family Court building for Philadelphia. In a letter that appears on this page, Chief Justice Castille takes issue with our coverage and decries his depiction in one of our cartoons.

First, we want to be clear: The Inquirer recognizes the dedicated and respected service of Chief Justice Castille, including his distinguished military career as a decorated combat veteran, and his terms as Philadelphia district attorney, justice, and now chief justice of Pennsylvania.

Chief Justice Castille correctly points out, as we did in our original reporting, that it is legal in Pennsylvania for him to receive these gifts, so long as proper reports are filed, and the chief justice indeed filed those reports. We have made it clear that we do not think any of these gifts have influenced any action taken by Chief Justice Castille, and it is worth noting that the chief justice's disclosures are more comprehensive than required by law. If any of our prior reporting led our readers to a different conclusion, we take this opportunity to correct that impression. Having said that, we did correct the two factual errors cited by the chief justice and we otherwise stand by our prior reporting.

We hope that the chief justice will lead Pennsylvania in changing the rules, following the example of those states whose laws do not allow judges to receive gifts. The cartoon was not meant to suggest that the chief justice was corrupt, but rather, in the American tradition of cartoons used as hyperbole and satire, to indicate our view that disclosure does not solve the appearance issues that arise when gifts are accepted.

We are pleased to see the cost of the Family Court building coming down substantially from $200 million, but we hope that active leadership will make sure that some of the choices that have already been made do not cause this important project to be less than it should be.