Pennsylvania high court debate includes all 7 candidates

All three of these judges will be outstanding Supreme Court justices, who will defend workers’ rights, voting rights and civil rights in Pennsylvania.

Thursday’s hour-long discussion at the Widener University Commonwealth Law School featured the opposing candidates for an opening on the Superior Court – Philadelphia Judge Alice Beck Dubow, a Democrat, and Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano, a Republican.

But they hesitated to criticize the court for actions leading to last year’s resignation of former Justice Seamus McCaffery after his fellow justices suspended him for involvement in the scandal.

“We don’t know any of the foundations on which they made their decision”, said Anne Covey, a Republican and state Commonwealth Court judge. Judge David Wecht, Judge Kevin Dougherty and Judge Christine Donohue have been recommended by the Pennsylvania Bar Association. The other vacancy was created by the retirement of Chief Justice Ronald Castille past year.

Kane says an internal review shows her office provided electronic versions of Eakin’s email exchanges including questionable content to a Supreme Court-appointed lawyer and officials from the state agency that investigates allegations of misconduct. “Does that mean that if anybody gives 50 cents to a judge that the judge will automatically recuse himself?”

Absent from the forum, sponsored by several voter-advocacy groups, was Pittsburgh lawyer Michael Wojcik, the Democratic nominee for Commonwealth Court.

Dubow, who’s been on the Philadelphia bench since 2007, leads in fundraising among the four candidates for the two mid-level appellate courts, taking in more than $525,000 through mid-September, according to campaign finance reports.