Constitutional amendment on districts for Pa. court elections shelved ... for now
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.
Deborah Gross, the CEO and president of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, predicted that opponents would be re-upping their fight against the bill sooner rather than later. “I do think we’ll see activity again for the November ballot,” she said.
Carol Kuniholm, who leads Fair Districts PA, told supporters in an email earlier this month that the bill was tabled and her group was now turning its attention to legislative redistricting.
“While it’s possible legislative leaders will attempt to pass (H.B. 38) in time for the general election in November, we are hopeful that the outcry of opposition from constituents, advocacy organizations and law associations turned the tide, convincing legislators and their leaders to set this very bad bill aside,” Kuniholm wrote.
Tabled after narrow vote
Diamond’s bill, which needs to be passed in a second consecutive session to get on the ballot for a statewide referendum, narrowly passed out of the House Judiciary Committee in a 13-12 vote on Jan. 13 with two Republicans joining Democrats in voting against it.
It would need to be passed by the House at least 90 days before the Nov. 2 general election in order to be advertised and placed on the ballot.
Jason Gottesman, House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff’s spokesman, said Diamond’s bill “is still being discussed and vetted by our caucus,” but that there is “no established timeline for when it may come up this session.”
Although it was moved to the House floor last month, the measure was tabled as the GOP-led House focused on constitutional amendments that would limit governors’ emergency declarations to 21 days and give child sexual abuse victims an expanded window to file civil suits against their abusers.
Benninghoff explained why H.B. 38 was on the legislative back burner during a Jan. 27 press conference in the Capitol.
“Sometimes you can put too many constitutional amendments on the ballot that people get confused,” he said, “and I think that this allows our Pennsylvania voters to be a little bit more focused on these first two initiatives.”
The following week controversy erupted when it was reported that the amendment for sexual abuse victims was not advertised by the Pennsylvania Department of State when the Legislature first passed it in November 2019, initially leading backers to believe it would not be on the May ballot.
Subsequently, legislators have said they will pursue an emergency amendment process to try and get it on this year's primary ballot.
Diamond said he was not discouraged by his bill being tabled amid the flurry of House activity. “That’s OK,” he said. “It doesn’t stop us in our tracks.”
Opposition galvanized?
Supporters, mainly Republicans such as Diamond, argue that imposing district elections for statewide courts would ensure fair representation for all of Pennsylvania, instead of having Philadelphia and Allegheny County, two heavily Democratic areas, dominate judgeships.
On the other hand, opponents say Republicans merely want revenge on Democratic-dominated courts for a series of rulings angering the GOP, ranging from the state Supreme Court throwing out the Republican gerrymandered congressional district map in 2018 and imposing its own to more recent cases questioning the state’s handling of its election and the results.
“I don’t know who’s for it other than members who don’t like the current Supreme Court justices,” said state Rep. Tim Briggs, D-Montgomery County, the minority chairman on the House Judiciary Committee.
Briggs called Diamond’s bill “an awful proposal for Pennsylvania and the courts” and questioned how much support it has among Republicans and their leadership. “Across the board, a lot of concerns were raised,” he said. “I don’t think they have the votes to bring it up.”
Briggs and Gross said tabling H.B. 38 now allows opponents to coalesce and be even more prepared if the bill comes up again. In fact, Gross said there has been a “tremendous amount of interest” from voters' rights groups to join the opposition to the bill.
But, Briggs and Gross said Republicans might not necessarily need to pass the bill for it to be useful to them. Gross said she has been told that Republicans will keep the bill in limbo as leverage against the state Supreme Court “to hold them accountable and make sure they don’t issue any decisions that are extreme.”
Briggs said he has heard similar speculation. “I hate to think that,” he said, “but that may not be too far from the truth.”
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