In 2018 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Invoked The State's Constitution To Help Democrats Win Control Of The House -- No Different Than What Virginia's Supreme Court Did Last Week.
Naked partisanship ruled the day with the Pennsylvania Justices who are partisan candidates when they run for election to that Court -- they didn't even try to hide it.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has seven Justices. They can be appointed by the Governor, or elected to open seats created by retiring Justices. If appointed, they must run for retention in the next regularly scheduled election. All Justices are elected to a fix term of 10 years.
Only 8 states have openly partisan elections for seats on their Supreme Court, and Pennsylvania is one of those states. Candidates for election to the Supreme Court have party affiliation listed alongside their names on the ballot.
Prior to May 2013, the partisan balance on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was a 4-3 Republican majority. But an very unusual confluence of events led to three of the seven seats being vacated before the next regularly scheduled election in November 2015.
In May 2013, Republican Justice Joan Orie Melvin resigned after being convicted of campaign corruption charges.
In October 2014, Democrat Seamus McCaffrey resigned amid a sexual and ethical scandal.
In December 2014, Republican Ronald Castille reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Only the first resignation by Justice Melvin was followed by an interim appointment. Because the date for Justice Castille’s mandatory retirement was publicly known, when Justice McCaffrey resigned no appointment was named and the Court functioned with only 5 Justices and a 3-2 GOP majority from Dec. 2014 to Nov. 2015.
Pennsylvania elections to fill empty Supreme Court seats are quite simple — all the candidates go on the ballot, voters get to pick as many candidates as there are open seats, and the top 3 vote-getters were elected — with Democrats sweeping the top 3 spots. That shifted the partisan balance on the Court to 4-3 in favor of the Democrats. The three new Justices took their seats on the Court in January 2016.
Just a little more than a year after this shift in the Court, the League of Women Voters filed suit to invalidate the existing congressional district map — adopted by the state in 2011!!!! The map had been used for six years — three election cycles.
