HARRISBURG – The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has preserved its Democratic majority, as Superior Court Judge Dan McCaffery secured his bid for a vacancy on the Commonwealth’s top bench over Republican candidate and Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Carluccio.
With McCaffery’s election to the state Supreme Court, its political affiliation makeup will now be 5-2 in favor of Democrats, counting McCaffery and fellow judges Debra Todd, Christine Donohue, Kevin M. Dougherty and David N. Wecht, with judges P. Kevin Brobson and Sallie Updyke Mundy comprising the Republican contingent.
The vacant seat on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania was created when its former Chief Justice Max Baer, a Democrat, passed away in the fall of 2022. Justices on the body serve terms of 10 years before running for re-election, and may only serve until they reach the age of 75.
McCaffery, 59, who previously served as a prosecutor and Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas judge before his election to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania in 2019, had the support of a plethora of Democratic organizations, plus that of unions and trial lawyers.
Carluccio, 63, was backed by Republican-affiliated political action committees, including Fair Courts America and the Commonwealth Leaders Fund – an organization with the support of Pennsylvania’s richest individual, billionaire Jeffrey Yass, who in the past has aligned with initiatives favored by conservative candidates, such as school choice.
Receiving approximately 53 percent of the total vote, McCaffery and his campaign released a statement after his victory.
“As the son of Irish immigrants who fled their home to escape sectarian violence and to make a better life for their children, tonight is truly remarkable. My parents’ experience led me to a life of service in the military, as a prosecutor, as a judge, and now as a justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. I’m humbled by the responsibility Pennsylvanians have entrusted in me and I intend to serve our Commonwealth and every community across Pennsylvania by defending our Constitution and ensuring our society is more fair, inclusive and accepting. Thank you,” McCaffery said.
The race attracted record-breaking donation amounts, totaling more than $22 million, and was one that may be a litmus test for the 2024 presidential election in Pennsylvania.
In recent years, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has decided key cases on elections which have proved critical in the Keystone State, and is currently considering cases centered on abortion rights and gun control – issues which defined both the campaign and the election results.
While Carluccio deferred publicly expressing a viewpoint on abortion, McCaffery positioned himself as a staunch defender of abortion rights in a post-Roe v. Wade America.
Now under the Court’s advisement is a legal challenge to a state law which prohibits public funds from being used to facilitate abortion access, in addition to the City of Philadelphia’s challenge to a statute preventing it and other municipalities from restricting gun sales and possession.
Meanwhile, election cases decided by the state Supreme Court in recent years have included upholding the constitutionality of mail-in voting, turning away a Republican challenge to the 2020 presidential election results which secured the race for President Joe Biden and rejecting a Republican-led effort to redraw a map of Pennsylvania’s congressional districts.
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com