Join me in supporting Sandusky trial Judge John Cleland for PA. Supreme Court.

[Divernan]

Today's Post-Gazette exhorted Corbett to name a non-partisan judge as convicted Justice Orie-Melvin's replacement on the state supreme court.

Now that Joan Orie Melvin has done the right thing and submitted her resignation from the state Supreme Court, Gov. Tom Corbett must not waste an opportunity to improve the state's highest court by selecting the right replacement.

Mr. Corbett has 90 days to select his nominee. The court is evenly divided politically, with three Republicans and three Democrats, so there may be a temptation to try to install a partisan ideologue in the seventh seat. That would be a mistake, and it is unlikely, too, because the Republican governor will need support from at least seven Democrats for his nominee to win the necessary two-thirds confirmation vote in the Senate.

The governor can expedite the process by avoiding candidates who have had significant roles in his administration, such his outgoing, and controversial, Department of Environmental Protection secretary, Michael Krancer, or Mr. Corbett's former chief of staff, Stephen Aichele. An additional safeguard would be to select a candidate who has no aspirations for a permanent spot on the court and who, therefore, promises not to run for a full, 10-year term.

No one expects Gov. Corbett to select a liberal Democrat who is out of sync with his views, but there are plenty of Republican legal minds whose views are mainstream enough to appeal to Democrats as well. That's what the Supreme Court needs, and that's the person Gov. Corbett should nominate.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/the-next-justice-corbett-should-name-a-non-partisan-to-the-court-681282/#ixzz2OvzVVqTa

I replied with the following comment:

Good editorial. I nominate the most respected judge in Pennsylvania, as least as far as lawyers and other judges are concerned, Senior Judge John Cleland. He has demonstrated his integrity, his strong work ethic and his ability to roll up his sleeves, put in long hours and deal with the two toughest cases in recent Pennsylvania history - the Kids for Cash scandal, and the Jerry Sandusky case. He is patient with attorneys & others in cases, but doesn't allow anyone to stall, delay or grandstand. Bottom line - he is the judge who had to clean up the mess exacerbated by then Attorney General Corbett's failure to timely investigate and stop Sandusky.

The only occasion when he was noted to have become angry was at a hearing in the Kids for Cash matter, when a District Attorney defended her failure to notice what was going on and asked how anybody stop a judge from criminal activity. Cleland angrily answered her, "You report them, Ms. Musto. You report them. That's the answer."

"Following the judge's blunt words, "The whole room went quiet," recalled Ken Horoho, former Pennsylvania Bar Association president and a Pittsburgh family law attorney on the commission.

Horoho said Cleland constantly read, wrote notes and consulted with fellow commission members about their work. He suspects Cleland sometimes worked through the night.

"I put in 400 to 500 hours, and I bet Judge Cleland put in even more (time)," Horoho said. "His wife, Julia, was his designated driver when we were traveling. She'd drive, and he worked while she was driving."

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/1908900-74/cleland-judge-court-county-state-case-commission-sandusky-intrabranch-kane#ixzz2Ovs2l4d5.

I hope my fellow Pennsylvanian DUers will blog/post/write letters to your local editors also in support of Judge Cleland, and create pressure on the legislature, and through them, on the Governor to appoint Cleland. I have no doubt he would get unanimous endorsement from the state Senate.

In my preliminary googling, I have found no reference to Judge Cleland as belonging to one political party or the other. Frankly, I don't care. As a retired law school professor (who taught trial advocacy) and semi-retired attorney, I think this judge is the BEST example of what a judge should be.

[JPZenger]

1. Usually agree to appoint someone who won't run for re-election

Sounds like a great guy. I'm glad he didn't let Sandusky do endless delays - the people needed some closure, and I couldn't stand watching Sandusky walk around free. If the attorney had time to talk to the press regularly, he should have had time to prepare his case.

Because a 2/3rds vote is needed to confirm, there has to be back and forth negotiation. The usual part of that negotiation process is to appoint someone who agrees they will not run for re-election, so no party has an advantage of having an incumbent.

[Pat Riot]

2. He sounds like someone we WOULD like to get re-elected though.

Is going without a replacement until after the election an option?

[Divernan]

3. It's a possibility, if Corbett's nominee(s) fail to get 70 percent of Senate votes.

The Senate is made up of 50 members, currently 27 Republicans & 23 Democrats. It takes 70%, i.e., 35 members to approve any candidate the Governor proposes. In other words, if all GOP Senators vote lock step for whomever Corbett nominates, they still need EIGHT Democratic Senators to also approve.

Say Corbett arrogantly nominates a horror like Big Fracking's stooge, Krancer. Even if all the GOP senators vote to approve him, that will not reach the 70% number. So if Corbett's first nominee goes down to defeat, Corbett (after clearing it with Big Frackers), submits nominee #2 to the state senate. If said nominee is another conservative A**hole like Krancer, again the Dems can block. Rinse, repeat.

In the meantime, the PA. Supreme Court is split, 3/3 between Dems and Republican justices. In regard to any cases which come before said 3/3 court, if the Justices' votes are tied, then the lower appellate court's ruling stands. So it's not as if Pennsylvania is in some anarchic, lawless state. Life as we know it continues, but at a disadvantage for Corbett, since he won't have a rubber stamp Supreme Court when the environmental/private property rights/local government zoning cases arising out of fracking make it to the final appeal level.