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A case in Northampton County points out another side effect that comes from electing judges. Sometimes, the electoral process itself will result in an entire court being unable to preside over a case because of potential conflicts.

The Allentown Morning Call reports that Northhampton County President Judge F. P. Kimberly McFadden issued an order recusing all county judges from presiding over a case involving Thomas E. Severson, a political consultant who has worked on several local judicial campaigns. Judge McFadden also requested that the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) appoint an out-of-county judge to preside over the case.

Such requests are not unheard of. They’re made when, for some reason, all of the judges in a county may have potential conflicts of interest in a particular case. The ethical thing for judges to do in that situation is to allow another judge to take over. But we find it interesting that in this case, it’s the litigant’s involvement in the judicial election process that has created the conflict.

A similar situation arose last year in Philadelphia when President Judge Darnell Jones recused the entire Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas from a case involving a challenge to Congressman Bob Brady’s filings for his mayoral campaign. The reasoning here was that Bob Brady is very involved in local judicial elections and therefore an appearance of conflict could arise in any sitting judge — whether Brady supported that judge’s election or not — presiding.

But what about others involved in the election process — like campaign donors?  Should there be rules requiring recusal when a campaign donor is involved as a lawyer or party?  Currently there are no rules that explicitly require that, but as we posted here, a case has been filed with the United States Supreme Court raising this question as it relates to significant campaign contributors.

One way to solve the problem is to take money and campaigning out of the system of picking judges.  We can do this for the appellate courts by switching to Merit Selection.

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