judgesonmerit.org

Yesterday’s Metro featured an article about the effort to bring Merit Selection to Pennsylvania. While the article identified some of the problems of judicial elections and some of the benefits of Merit Selection, it mistakenly implied that the current Merit Selection legislation would affect all courts in Pennsylvania. The fact is, we are working for Merit Selection of the three statewide appellate courts only.

There are three appellate courts in Pennsylvania — the Supreme, Superior and Commonwealth Courts. There are 31 appellate judges, out of a total of 1,048 judges in Pennsylvania.

The problems with judicial elections — the lack of emphasis on candidates’ qualifications, the huge sums of money raised from parties likely to appear before the judges in the future, and the lack of opportunities for qualified candidates of all backgrounds — are more pronounced at the level of the appellate courts.

As a result, the current reform effort is focused on changing the way we select this part of the judiciary. The trial courts, including the Courts of Common Pleas, Municipal Courts, Magisterial District Judge Courts, and Traffic Courts, would not be affected.