The Case for Voting “No” in the PA Supreme Court Race

This fall, vote “No” if you want to stand up to out-of-control Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices acting like party bosses, tearing up bipartisan compromises, and enabling bigger, more invasive government – all without regard for the law or common sense. Vote “No” three times –against each justice seeking to be re-elected.

We should expect judges – especially Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices – to be fair, impartial, and follow the law. The three justices running for retention failed us on each of those. We should reject each of them.

In Pennsylvania, after winning their first election, all judges/justices stand for “retention,” ten years after being elected, in order to get re-elected for another ten years. It’s a simple yes or no question. These justices should not be retained.

Why? Their rulings contributed to rising healthcare costs. They overturned bipartisan laws. And they enabled former Gov. Tom Wolf to micromanage our lives.

Each of the three justices have shown themselves not to be fair, impartial, or dedicated to the rule of law. Instead, they have acted like partisan activists – exercising political muscle to destroy bipartisan laws, rewarding their special-interest supporters, and punishing Republicans with almost no commitment to the written law. Their power-play rulings have caused health care costs to rise. And they enabled Wolf to exercise dictatorial powers against Pennsylvanians during the Covid era.

Three strikes, they’re out.

Consider their record. For example, Pennsylvania had a decades-old, bipartisan law that helped control health care costs that was honored by Democratic and Republican governors. Then, these justices ignored that bipartisan law and crafted their own law. Now, Pennsylvania health care costs are rising higher and higher.

Moreover, during the Covid era, Wolf imposed among the most restrictive lockdowns and irrational mandates in the nation – and kept them in place for longer than almost any state.Need a refresher? Wolf created the infamous designations of “essential” and “non-essential” workers.

Some of us had to work; others could work; others were not allowed. Walmart could be open, but your local hardware store was closed. Wolf ordered the closing of houses of worship. Meanwhile, on the advice of Dr. Rachel Levine, he directed ill seniors into nursing homes and locked our children out of school. His “bar standard:” you could not go to a bar for only a beer: you could only buy a beer if you ordered nachos or a burger – bar pretzels didn’t count.

Our children were not allowed to visit their grandparents in the hospital or nursing homes.

When anyone sued to limit or stop him or force Wolf to negotiate with our elected state Legislators, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court said “no” every time. These three Supreme Court justices running for retention consistently ruled to enable Wolf’s unlimited, authoritarian powers.

Moreover, do not forget the attorney defending Wolf’s executive orders. It was then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro who fought in court to permit Wolf to enforce his Covid dictates, which profoundly diminished our quality of life and livelihoods.

Back in 2017, as the first test case for the national Democrats’ plan to control the U.S. House by taking over each state’s redistricting process in key states, Pennsylvania operatives stepped forward. They sued to undo the congressional lines drawn by our elected legislature in a bipartisan vote in 2011.

Those suing made this “compelling” case: “too many” Republicans had been elected to represent us in Congress. These three Justices – Democrats elected with the support of Democratic operatives and funders – ruled with the majority: “too many” Republicans were winning.

Having enacted part one of the national Democrats’ plan – throwing out a bipartisan, legislatively-drawn congressional map – they moved to part two. The justices themselves drew the new map for the 2018 congressional elections – leading to four new Democrats elected in Pennsylvania.

The justices, acting like party bosses, had done the DNC’s bidding. In 2020, they unilaterally changed the rules and ignored our bipartisan election laws many times – doing whatever it took for their team.

For example, under our bipartisan election laws, mail-in ballots are to be delivered by election night, but the justices ruled that Friday night after the election was close enough. Those ballots must also be dated, and hand signed by the voter. But the justices ruled those are just “technicalities” and they should still be counted. Moreover, ballots in dispute are to be kept separate from non-disputed ballots; then ruled on one at a time. Yet Allegheny County officials “accidentally” merged them all, so they couldn’t set aside those with fatal flaws. These justices “admonished” county officials, but said they’d allow this violation just this one time (a ruling that allowed a Democrat to defeat a Republican in a state Senate race by 69 votes).

And the justices created drop boxes without any statutory basis and without any rules for monitoring or securing them.

These three justices have not earned re-election for 10 more years. In fact, they essentially disqualified themselves as impartial jurists. They rejected bipartisan laws to keep healthcare costs under control. They rejected bipartisan laws to oversee our elections. And they rejected our pleas to limit Wolf’s authoritarian powers over our lives and livelihoods.

Voters should reject all three of them with three “no” votes.