Judge withdraws as nominee for top state court seat after racially insensitive email surfaces
Following news reports about a racially insensitive email, a nominee for a seat on Pennsylvania’s top court has withdrawn from consideration.
A day before his scheduled confirmation hearing for a supreme court seat, Judge Thomas Kistler, who serves as president judge of Centre County Common Pleas Court, said he is withdrawing from consideration, according to the Patriot-News and the Tribune-Review.
“Since November, when I first offered to serve the Commonwealth on the highest court in Pennsylvania, several circumstances have developed here at home in Centre County, which have dramatically altered the legal system and require my full attention,” the 57-year-old Kistler said Monday in a written statement. “I cannot with a clear conscience abandon my responsibilities to Centre County in this time of uncertainty.”
He has previously acknowledged sending the Christmas email over a year ago, which depicted a black couple apparently visiting in prison, but did not address it in his withdrawal statement.
On Friday, Kistler confirmed that he had forwarded the email, captioned “Merry Christmas from the Johnsons,” but insisted there was no racism involved, the Centre Daily Times reported. The email from Kistler’s account included the comment “Touching and heart-warming. Merry Christmas to ALL!”
On Friday, he told the Daily Times “There was absolutely no ill intent. It was a comment about how lightly people take being incarcerated.”
See also:
Patriot-News: “Gov. Tom Wolf reviewing Centre County Judge Thomas Kistler’s nomination to Pa. Supreme Court”
Philadelphia Inquirer: “Wolf nominee withdraws name for Supreme Court”