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Attorney Peter Vaira’s op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer details recent troubles plaguing Pennsylvania’s court system and offers some thoughts on causation:

Is this Huey Long’s Louisiana? What is behind these events? Part of the answer is Pennsylvania’s county government system. Each county has its own courts, its own court rules, and often its own unwritten procedures. Nor does the state attorney general have any control over county prosecutors.

Another problem is that all judges run for election. This creates a system of subtle (and often not-so-subtle) IOUs, especially at the county-court level.

All of this can foster localized criminal justice and make the courts insiders’ forums.

Vaira’s tag that the judicial election system is “a system of ious” echoes increasing public concern about the influence campaign contributions have on judges.  Increasingly, the public has come to believe that we have a system in which justice may be “for sale” to campaign contributors.

This is simply an unacceptable situation.  To restore public confidence in our courts and judiciary, we must get judges out of the fundraising business.

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