HARRISBURG – A Republican lawmaker has authored a resolution calling for the impeachment of Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Justice David N. Wecht, alleging that the judge is guilty of “misbehavior in office.”
Rep. Frank Ryan (R – Lebanon County) introduced House Resolution 1044 on Tuesday, which took Wecht to task for his decisions in the 2018 League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania case on gerrymandering and redistricting, and for his rulings in cases connected to the upcoming presidential election and Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus shutdown orders.
In each of the cases cited by the resolution, Wecht was joined by a majority of his fellow justices in his rulings.
Among other arguments, Ryan put forth that Wecht’s focus on voter gerrymandering and redistricting while running as a candidate for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 2015 should have led the justice to later recuse himself from deliberations on the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania case.
“[Justice Wecht’s actions] undermine confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary and betray the trust of the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, thereby bringing disrepute on the courts of the Commonwealth, and rendering Justice Wecht unfit to continue to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,” the resolution stated.
Along with Ryan, the bill features 33 legislative co-sponsors and was sent to the Judiciary Committee for further proceedings.
Wecht, Other Judges Respond to Impeachment Resolution
Wecht issued a statement in response to Ryan’s resolution, referring to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall’s belief in the rule of law and an independent judiciary.
“In the United States of America, we do not impeach judges with whose opinions we disagree. We are a nation of laws, not a nation of mobs. When anyone, including legislators, attempts to intimidate our judges, they threaten our liberties and the rule of law. It is ironic that here in Pennsylvania, the cradle of our nation’s liberty, some would forget our history and the tradition of judicial independence that has safeguarded our people’s freedoms,” Wecht said.
Wecht’s colleague, Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor, also commented on the resolution.
“An independent judiciary is a cornerstone of our constitutional democracy. Threats of removal directed against judges based upon their decisions in selected cases are an affront to judicial independence,” Saylor remarked.
Pennsylvania Judicial Independence Commission Co-Chair and U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Judge John E. Jones III issued a statement of his own, saying that a judge “should not be subject to removal by another co-equal branch simply because they are doing their job in interpreting the law.”
“This effort by some members of the Pennsylvania legislature is just the latest bid in what seems like a national trend – threatening to impeach judges because of disagreement with their decisions,” Jones said.
“This challenge, like the others, is a direct threat to a bedrock of our constitutional democracy – an independent judiciary. Judges need to decide cases based on their understanding of what the law requires, without worrying that they might be removed from office if political actors don’t like their decisions.”
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com