Amendment To Regionalize Courts Is Put On Hold

The Beaver County Times reported Wednesday (Febuary 17) that “A proposed constitutional amendment to have Pennsylvania appellate court judges elected by geographic districts rather than statewide, won’t be on the May primary ballot, but nobody on either side thinks that it’s a dead issue.  

‘I’m confident that this bill will move,’ said state Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon County, the sponsor of House Bill 38, which would divide statewide court elections into nine Commonwealth Court districts, 15 Superior Court districts and seven Supreme Court districts.”

HB-38, which apparently didn’t have enough Republican votes that would have enabled the amendment to appear on the May 18 primary ballot, calls for Pennsylvania to change the way  its appelate judges are chosen. Currently, elections for the state’s Superior Court, Commonwealth Court and Supreme Court are all conducted on a statewide basis. Republicans want to amend the constitution in order to have all appellate judges chosen from “judicial districts,” not unlike legislative districts.

Organizations opposed to HB-38 include, but are not limited to the ACLU, Fair DistrictsPA, The League of Women Voters, The Committee of 70, and the Montgomery County Bar Association.