On July 15, we posted the results of a public opinion survey commissioned by the American Justice Partnership Foundation which revealed that an overwhelming 75% of Americans believe state Supreme Court justices should be elected by the people.
Today, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts – a group funded by George Soros which is fighting to take away […]

In an op-ed in Pennsylvania’s Daily Local News, retired family physician Robert Poole describes what it’s like to have a target painted on your back in a trial lawyers’ free fire zone — in other words, what it’s like to be a doctor in Pennsylvania today.
Today, the pressing issue in the well-heeled suburb of West […]

The right of Pennsylvania citizens to vote for state judges is safe – at least for now. Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts issued a press release yesterday acknowledging that “it is too late to pass a constitutional amendment” to abolish democratic judicial elections this year.
The group is funded in part by hedgefund billionaire George Soros, who is funneling millions of dollars through […]

How would you describe the medical liability climate in a state where one out of every two doctors has recently been sued? That’s Pennsylvania, where almost 12,000 out of the 25,000 full time physicians were hit with medical liability lawsuits between 2002 and 2007. Most observers would consider it a crisis, but trial lawyers think […]

For weeks, the folks at JudgesOnMerit.org have labored to convince everyone that they are really the ones who support democracy because (let’s follow this closely) they want to end democratic elections for judges in Pennsylvania and let a secret, unelected, unaccountable commission decide who controls one-third of the state government.
It’s a hard case to make, […]

In a new post, JudgesOnMerit.org protests they only want to take away the people’s right to vote for judges – not governors or legislators, at least at this time. I guess Pennsylvanians are supposed to take comfort from the fact that they’ll still be able to vote for the two-thirds of the government which […]

Shira Goodman at JudgesOnMerit.org argues that Secret Selection (aka “merit selection” – where lawyers meet behind closed doors to pick judges) is actually more democratic than elections by the people.
So let me get this straight: Choosing judges by direct election, where all Pennsylvania citizens can exercise their constitutional right to vote, is undemocratic. […]

Poor Shira Goodman - part of the gang over at Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts that wants to abolish the constitutional right of Pennsylvania citizens to choose that state’s judges and let a committee of lawyers meet in secret to decide who sits on the bench. She’s got a losing hand but she just keeps […]

Shira Goodman has a revealing post over at the JudgesonMerit.org blog about the fight to abolish democratic election of judges in Pennsylvania and let a lawyer-dominated committee pick judges behind closed doors.
Goodman leads off by praising the skill, experience and fairness of many Pennsylvania appellate judges. But, Goodman proclaims, “they reached the bench despite […]

Philadelphia’s The Bulletin reports on the continuing debate over Pennsylvania’s judicial selection process.
Russ Diamond, founder of PA Clean Sweep, is quoted as saying:

If electing judges is such a horrible idea that Pennsylvania needs to simply abandon it, then where is the list of bad judges the people have elected in error? Where is the […]