judgesonmerit.org

The current Merit Selection proposal applies only to the three statewide appellate courts — the Supreme Court, the Superior Court and the Commonwealth Court. Together, there are 31 appellate judges, out of a total of 1,048 judges in Pennsylvania. That’s it — we’re talking about changing the way we pick 31 judges.

We’re talking about the 31 judges who run in statewide elections, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (and millions for the Supreme Court) on their campaigns. Elections for the local courts so far have been less expensive (although the costs for these are also steadily rising) than elections for the appellate courts and have resulted in more diverse judiciaries. In short, the problems inherent in electing judges are more evident at the level of the statewide appellate courts.

In addition, appellate judges have different jobs than the judges in our local trial courts (common pleas courts, magisterial district judge courts, municipal and traffic courts). Where the lower courts really are “people’s courts,” that hold trials on traffic accident cases, employment disputes, custody cases, landlord-tenant problems and personal injury claims, the appellate courts address questions about how the law was applied in those cases.

The appellate courts don’t hold trials and aren’t the places where people come to tell their side of the story. Instead, the appellate courts are where the lawyers make legal arguments about possible errors in the trial, including whether evidence was improperly presented, or the need to make changes in the applicable law. It makes sense to consider using different processes to select these different kinds of judges.

Changing the way we select appellate judges is a serious matter for the people of Pennsylvania to consider. But it’s not a wholesale change of the way we pick judges in the state. After all, the change would only affect 31 judges — less than 3 percent of the judges in Pennsylvania.

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