High court to hear suit on judicial referendum
In a highly unusual move, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on an emergency basis the lawsuit filed last week by two retired Supreme Court justices and a prominent Philadelphia attorney challenging the wording of the ballot question on the state’s judicial retirement age.
The three-paragraph order gave Pedro Cortes, Pennsylvania’s top election official, until next Wednesday to respond and it promised to hear expedited arguments.
The suit, itself, is perhaps unprecedented because it was filed by two ex-justices, Ronald D. Castille and Stephen Zappala Sr., along with lawyer Richard A. Sprague. They challenged the latest wording of the referendum, saying it was “deceitful” because it implied that voters would be imposing a term limit on judges instead of extending their possible time on the bench by five years.
The current wording was approved by the Legislature and ratified by Mr. Cortes in the spring after a lastminute legal challenge by some lawmakers who thought the original wording was cumbersome and confusing.
It read: “Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to require that justices of the Supreme Court, judges, and justices of the peace (known as magisterial district judges) be retired on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 75 years, instead of the current requirement that they be retired on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 70?”
Two weeks before the April primary, Republican legislators approved a joint resolution — with some Democrats supporting them — to change the language to read: “Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to require that justices of the Supreme Court, judges, and magisterial district judges be retired on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 75 years?”
The change was made so close to primary day that counties had already printed ballots with the original wording. Thus, the Legislature directed Mr. Cortes to disregard the results of any votes and ordered that the question appear with the new wording on the Nov. 8 ballot. Nearly 2.4 million voters cast ballots on it, narrowly defeating it.
This week, two top GOP lawmakers — Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-Jefferson, and Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre — argued in a brief that the suit against the revised wording by the former justices and Mr. Sprague was “flawed.”