PHILADELPHIA – Pennsylvanians have voted to retain all three justices on the state Supreme Court that were up for retention this election cycle – Justices Christine Donohue, David Wecht and Kevin Dougherty – according to the Associated Press.
What we know:
Now, Wecht and Dougherty will serve another 10-year term. Donohue, on the other hand, will only serve two more years as she is subject to a mandatory retirement rule once she turns 75 in 2027.
Typically, judicial votes fly under the radar in the face of what are considered to be more pressing ballot choices. This year, however, all eyes were on Pennsylvania, as the results of these votes have major implications on both the state and federal level. Both parties invested significant resources into these retention races due to those implications.
If the justices had not been retained, the Court would have been left, at least temporarily, with only four justices: two Democrats and two Republicans. An even number of justices, especially ones that are split by party, would have allowed for more tie votes, as 90.5 WESA notes. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, would have had to nominate three justices to the Court, and since the state Senate is currently controlled by Republicans, there was reason to believe the voting body would have taken issue with at least one of his nominations.
Chip Becker, a member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Commission on Judicial Independence, told WESA that long-term delays in the confirmation process would have been a “significant blow to the efficiency and speed at which the Court could have functioned.”
As DNC Chair Ken Martin told City & State Pennsylvania “[t]he Pennsylvania Supreme Court is on the front lines of decisions related to voting rights, redistricting, abortion protections and more,” so had any of these justices failed to win their election, the implications would have been felt statewide.
Additionally, Mini Timmaraju, the president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, told City & State that had any of these justices lost, it would have “put reproductive freedom in jeopardy from further attacks from state Republicans and Donald Trump.”