GOP Legislators Introduce Resolution To Impeach PA Supreme Court Justice
Triblive.com reported on Wednesday (October 7) that “Rep. Frank Ryan, R-Lebanon, introduced House Resolution 1044 on Tuesday criticizing Wecht for judicial activism in recent cases: the 2018 case on redistricting, as well as opinions relative to the upcoming election and Gov. Tom Wolf’s pandemic shutdown orders.”
Click here to read the whole resolution
PennRecord.com a website that covers legal issues in Pennsylvania wrote,
“Among other arguments, Ryan put forth that Wecht’s focus on voter gerrymandering and redistricting while running as a candidate for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 2015 should have led the justice to later recuse himself from deliberations on the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania case.
‘[Justice Wecht’s actions] undermine confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary and betray the trust of the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, thereby bringing disrepute on the courts of the Commonwealth, and rendering Justice Wecht unfit to continue to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,’ the resolution stated.”
Supreme Court Members Respond to the Republican resolution
According to WABC27, “Wecht responded, saying “In the United States of America we do not impeach judges with whose opinions we disagree. We are a nation of laws, not a nation of mobs.”
Republican Chief Justice Thomas Saylor agreed saying “an independent judiciary is a cornerstone of our constitutional Democracy. Threats of removal directed against judges based upon their decisions in selected cases are an affront to judicial independence.”