A Commonwealth Court judge has rejected an appeal to revisit the issue of the wording in a question on November's ballot question where voters are being asked to approve whether to raise the retirement age of state judges to 75 years.
Related links
-
![]()
Referendum over Pa. judge retirement age lands back in court
-
![]()
New attempt to stop ballot question raising Pa. judges' retirement age
-
![]()
Stakes high in battle over judges' retirement age
President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt dismissed the appeal from two former state Supreme Court justices — Ronald D. Castille and Stephen Zappala Sr. — along with Philadelphia lawyer Richard A. Sprague, who sued arguing the new wording did not fully inform voters that the existing age of retirement is 70 years.
Leavitt said previous court action on the claims filed by the petitioners bars them from litigating the case again on Commonwealth Court.
On Sept. 2, the state Supreme Court deadlocked in a 3-3 decision, which effectively left in place the state Legislature's new wording for the referendum.
The present suit was brought by the same petitioners, raised the same issues and asserted the exact same cause of action on whether the ballot was constitutionally defective, Leavitt wrote.
The fight originated over last-minute changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature earlier this year which resulted in delaying the ballot question until November instead of having it appear on primary ballot last May. The two former judges and Sprague contended that Republican senators made the change against the backdrop of an email scandal involving pornographic, racist, and offensive messages that had ensnared two other former members of the Supreme Court — and at a time when public confidence in the state's judiciary was shaken.
Comment policy:
Philly.com comments are intended to be civil, friendly conversations. Please treat other participants with respect and in a way that you would want to be treated. You are responsible for what you say. And please, stay on topic. If you see an objectionable post, please report it to us using the "Report Abuse" option.
Please note that comments are monitored by Philly.com staff. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable. Personal attacks, especially on other participants, are not permitted. We reserve the right to permanently block any user who violates these terms and conditions.
Additionally comments that are long, have multiple paragraph breaks, include code, or include hyperlinks may not be posted.
No comments :
Post a Comment