PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE: On Tuesday, voters in Pennsylvania approved a state constitutional amendment that raises the retirement age for judges to 75.
The question was intentionally misleading: A question that explained voters would be raising the retirement age was invalidated but still voted on last year, and was rejected. The one that pretended it was establishing a retirement age passed.
But how the question passed is of less interest than what it means. As I wrote last week, the passage of this constitutional change makes it very likely that the state will have a majority-Democratic Pennsylvania Supreme Court until 2022 now that Democratic justice Max Baer is allowed to serve five more years. Baer will have a retention election next year, but only Russell Nigro has ever lost a judicial retention election in the state (in the wake of Bonusgate)… (more)
