New racially insensitive email arises concerning Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Only a few months ago a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice announced his retirement, following a scandal over raunchy emails sent from his personal account. Now questions are being asked about another racially insensitive email that may have been sent by a nominee to fill a vacant seat on the state’s top court.
Centre County Court President Judge Thomas Kistler tells the Philadelphia Inquirer he doesn’t remember sending a December 2013 email that has sparked criticism, but he also didn’t deny that he sent it. The email includes a cartoon that apparently depicts a black couple during a prison visit and is captioned “Merry Christmas From The Johnsons.”
Kistler also said the message on the forwarding email, “Touching and heartwarming. Merry Christmas to ALL! JK,” does not sound like something he would write, the article reports.
He told the newspaper he doesn’t think the cartoon is funny and that if he had sent such an email he would have intended to convey the idea that “Christmas goes on, even for the people we put in jail.”
If Kistler did send the email, it’s “more than just offensive; it shows he’s out of touch,” Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, told the Tribune-Review. “It’s not representative of someone we want on the bench. I don’t know him—never met him. But I do not think it is funny or humorous.”
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Now-retired justice’s pornographic emails were only impropriety found in special counsel’s report”
