If old judges are so wise, why can’t they clean up Pennsylvania courts?
This is Part Three in our three-part series. Part One. Part two.
Enter Rep. Kate Harper
Today’s advocates of extending the retirement age of Pennsylvania judges to 75 intentionally ignore the political influence and corruption issues of the proposal, and instead try to change the conversation to medical issues.
In early 2015, Rep. Harper told the House Judiciary Committee that people live longer these days, and so can stay on the job longer.
Governors probably live longer too, but that hasn’t caused them to go running to the legislature to apply for a third term. (Gov. Ray Shafer, sitting governor at the time of the 1967-67 constitutional convention, was himself grandfathered out of the new constitution’s two-term change, and could only serve one term. Nothing in today’s proposal we should note would exempt current sitting judges from serving until 75, in a similar fashion that applied to Gov. Shafer.)
In a related committee hearing in 2013, the House Judiciary Committee even trotted out a doctor to testify that “there is no sharp decline of mental functioning between age 70 and 75 and the prevalence of dementia was relatively small,” the Pennsylvania Record recently reported.
So, what are they suggesting, that we’ve cured Alzheimer’s? If so, someone in the Pennsylvania legislature should call the American Medical Association to share the happy news.
Proponents also argue that old judges bring wisdom. If old judges are so wise, why can’t they clean up Pennsylvania’s courts?
Of course that’s all a ruse, to provide cover for this blatant political power and money grab.
And it’s beside the point. In fact it’s not even the point at all.
One need only look at the dismal and pathetic public record of former Chief Justice Ron Castille, who faced mandatory retirement this January, to understand the real point, and the real concern of the framers of our state constitution.
Castille presided over one of the most politically corrupt eras of our courts in state history. Under Castille and his immediate predecessors, for just one notorious example, 6,500 kids were sold down the river in Luzerne County over the course of years in the Kids for Cash scandal, without proper court hearings, or even lawyers, by judges bribed on behalf of a private detention facility that was co-owned by the son of another chief justice, Stephen Zappala.
Lawsuits filed by no less than Common Cause Pennsylvania and the League of Women Voters in the 2000s accused Castille and his cohorts, the late Chief Justice Ralph Cappy, and current Justice Michael Eakin, of politicking and horse trading with state legislators and Ed Rendell’s governor’s office for judicial pay raises in return for court approval of legalized casino gambling.
In that memorable episode, the government reform groups reported that one legislator identified as House Member A, “had run into Justice (Ronald) Castille at the Golden Sheaf restaurant at the Harrisburg Hilton Hotel and inquired about the Act 71 (casino) Litigation, to which Justice Castille gave a ‘wink and a nod’ to House Member A which he/she interpreted as clearly indicating and communicating that Act 71 would be held constitutional.”
With Castille, over the years, the scandals just kept coming. In 2010 he was caught channeling $12 million dollars in a no-bid fashion to a golf buddy for the construction of a family court building in Philadelphia.
In a political flap with Attorney General Kane last year, Castille demanded the AG’s office turn over the aforementioned porno emails from an ongoing criminal investigation controlled by Kane’s executive branch.
Castille further blatantly violated the constitutional separation of powers of the judicial and executive branches by signing off on a questionable court-appointed prosecutor to go after AG Kane. This blatant chicanery and monkey business involving serious breaches of separation of powers for reasons of political skullduggery are at the heart of Kane’s current appeal before the court.
Lucky for us all, come this past January, thanks to our current constitution, Castille and his tainted brand of politics were booted off the court, as he turned 70 last year.
Those involved in our constitutional convention in the 1960s would be gratified, and pleased.
In Castille’s case, their mandatory retirement provision had thankfully worked.
If Rep. Harper had gotten her way earlier, we would have been helplessly saddled with Ron Castille and his political turmoil for another five years.
Under Ron Castille and his cronies our courts have degenerated into just another entitlement class, looking out for themselves, and their pals.
The mandatory retirement of judges at 70 is the only practical measure that has managed to protect the victimized citizens of Pennsylvania from further endless monkey business from at the hands of scandal-plagued judiciary, and wannabe politicians like Ron Castille.
Pennsylvanians should say no to this latest power and money grab.
This sense of entitlement, power mongering and yes, personal greed, by these self-obsessed lawyers on our courts is what deserves our sternest disapproval.
Real respect is earned, and is not handed out with a black robe and a gavel, as they insist.
It’s time Pennsylvania judges again get respect and distinguished careers the old fashioned way: they should earn it.
