judgesonmerit.org

On Friday, April 4th, Dan Pero of AmericanCourthouse.com posted two items critical of our perspective on judicial selection of appellate judges in Pennsylvania. We’ve said all along that reasonable people can disagree about judicial selection. We started this blog to encourage discussion about the subject, and we’re gratified that Mr. Pero believes the issue to be important. However, we wish he would stop trying to mislead his readers.

In his swipes at Merit Selection, Mr. Pero returns again and again to the same hollow argument. He insists there is a conspiracy afoot to “take away” the right of the citizens of Pennsylvania to vote for appellate judges.

No matter how many times Mr. Pero and other critics of Merit Selection repeat this mantra, no one can take away the current elective system from the citizens of Pennsylvania. The state Constitution can only be amended after the voters pass a referendum to authorize the change. Like other Merit Selection critics, Mr. Pero ignores this fact.

We can only adopt a Merit Selection system for Pennsylvania’s appellate judges if the people of Pennsylvania vote for it. The only thing we want to “take away” from the people is the false impression that anyone can implement Merit Selection in Pennsylvania without popular consent.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS