Judicial Independence

Common Cause Pennsylvania and its partners ACLU of Pennsylvania and All Voting is Local Action issued the following joint statement regarding the importance of the two Pennsylvania Supreme Court candidates upholding election security and accepting verified election results.

Khalif Ali, the director of the good government group Common Cause Pennsylvania, said of the self-funded campaigns that “the most glaring problem is the fact that not everyone can do that.” “The judge that can fund his or her own campaign with $100,000 or more certainly doesn’t understand or can empathize with the story of someone who has lived in poverty their entire life,” he said. “There could be a struggle to represent the interest of someone in poverty.”

Meanwhile, there are battles in many statehouses over voting with GOP bills limiting ballot access and bills written by Democrats expanding access.

During today’s meeting of the House Judiciary Committee, Common Cause Pennsylvania Executive Director Khalif Ali submitted testimony strongly opposing House Bill 38, the Judicial Districts Amendment. This unprecedented bill would take voters’ power over our courts away and eviscerate judicial independence. It is opposed by many former Pennsylvania judges, both Democratic and Republican as well as news media editorial boards around the state.

House Bill 196 has dangerously re-emerged in the Senate, and was voted out of the Senate State Government Committee in a party-line vote today. Common Cause Pennsylvania continues to actively oppose the bill, which would establish judicial districts here in the Commonwealth. Electing judges in expensive, partisan elections by judicial districts subverts the role of the judiciary and encroaches on the roles of the other two branches of government.