PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor suggested that judicial elections should be eliminated in Pennsylvania because contributions to those campaigns lead the public to perceive judges as influenced by donors.
While Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American democracy, the state has departed from the U.S. Constitution regarding judicial selection, Justice O’Connor said.
It is a “serious problem that so many people in our country think that judges are just politicians in robes,” she said… (more)
This is nothing but an unabashed attempt to further isolate the Court system and the chosen Judges of the political parties from the general public, particularly when important political questions and the pension of an honorable member of the bench is in question.
If Ms. O’Connor and her colleagues are concerned about public perception of “just politicians in robes” they should stop seeking legitimacy from the political system that is in fact their master.
More to the point of the Ms. O’Connor’s argument that Pennsylvania has strayed from Constitutionality, I would concur. The Commonwealth (State is not its formal title) has been under the control, and increasingly so, by political parties who seek and who continue to exclude those who do not agree with their view of issues and and their hand selected candidates for Office through gerrymandering, redistricting, and outright exclusion of voters from the primary process.
What have our Honors done to change this? They have continually reaffirmed the two party hegemony that has helped these same Judges to attain the level of professional training they have attained, Russell Nigro and Sandra Day O’Connor included…