In televised debate, candidates for scandal-plagued state supreme court emphasize ethics
Seven candidates for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court emphasized ethics in a televised debate held Wednesday evening just hours after a sitting justice released a statement apologizing for insensitive email content.
Two of the three vacant seats are open because of scandals, report TribLive, the Morning Call, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
One justice, Joan Orie Melvin, was convicted for using government staffers for political work. Another justice, Seamus McCaffery, retired amid a probe of sexually explicit emails on his personal account. Now a third justice, J. Michael Eakin, is facing an investigation by an outside law firm into his personal emails; he issued a statement apologizing for “insensitive content.”
Most of the candidates said independent panels, rather than the court, should investigate allegations against justices. They also emphasized their own integrity, but disagreed on the need for automatic recusal in cases involving campaign contributors.
One candidate, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Kevin Dougherty, said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is “a noble institution that has been best by human frailty,” according to the TribLive account. “First and foremost, we have to bring integrity back to the court,” he said.
Another candidate, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Paul Panepinto, said he’s running as an independent candidate because of nepotism and politics in the system. “Something hit me: You gotta deal with the politicians,” he said. “I could never even get [the party endorsement] even though I was more qualified than the candidates who participated.”
Panepinto was previously in the news for sanctioning a lawyer $1 million for allegedly elicting banned testimony.
Hat tip to How Appealing.
