{"id":14976,"date":"2025-10-25T20:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/14976\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T20:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:36:07","slug":"vote-yes-to-retain-pa-supreme-court-judges-scranton-times-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/14976\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote \u2018yes\u2019 to retain Pa. Supreme Court judges \u2013 Scranton Times-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speakers and advocates gathered outside Black & Brass Coffee Saturday for a \u201cSpeak Out\u201d event, urging voters to retain Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices David Wecht, Christine Donohue and Kevin Dougherty.<\/p>\n

The three justices \u2014 part of a 5-2 Democratic majority in the Supreme Court \u2014 were elected in 2015 and assumed office the following year. Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices serve 10-year terms.<\/p>\n

While retention elections are normally routine, non-partisan matters and are basically foregone conclusions, Republicans are working to vacate the three justices from their seat.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Bridget Kosierowski, D-114, Waverly Twp.,\u00a0urged voters to remember how important the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is, as the first line of protection for citizens of the state.<\/p>\n

Kosierowski, who spent more than 25 years as a registered nurse, said the retention vote would have an impact on health care issues.<\/p>\n

She described the justices up for retention with three words: \u201cprotection, independence and experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Representative<\/p>\n

Representative Kyle Donahue speaks at a \u201cSpeakout\u201d rally on Oct. 25, 2025. The rally was to encourage voters to vote \u201cyes\u201d to retaining three PA Supreme Court Justices in the upcoming election. (GERI GIBBONS\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/p>\n

Jennifer Graham Partyka, RN, speaks at a \u201cSpeakout\u201d rally on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. The rally was to encourage voters to vote \u201cyes\u201d to retaining three PA Supreme Court Justices in the upcoming election. (GERI GIBBONS\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 2<\/p>\n

Representative Kyle Donahue speaks at a \u201cSpeakout\u201d rally on Oct. 25, 2025. The rally was to encourage voters to vote \u201cyes\u201d to retaining three PA Supreme Court Justices in the upcoming election. (GERI GIBBONS\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a>
\nVote \u2018yes\u2019, not \u2018Yaas\u2019<\/p>\n

The three justices are running for another term, but appear on the ballot simply as a \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018no\u2019 vote, in answer to the question, \u201cShould this judge be retained?\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the themes of the Speak Out rally was, \u201cVote \u2018Yes,\u2019 not Yass,\u2019\u201d referencing billionaire Jeffrey Yass\u2019 efforts to finance the Republicans\u2019 campaign against retention.<\/p>\n

Alicia Duque, a member of Action Together NEPA and a mother of three boys with special needs, feels like the system is rigged against hardworking families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work harder than ever to make ends meet, yet billionaires like Jeff Yass continue to hoard their wealth without paying their share,\u201d she said in a statement read at the rally. \u201cNow, Jeff Yass wants to rig our Pennsylvania Supreme Court to serve his own political agenda. But, we won\u2019t let him.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Rep. Kyle Donahue, D-113, Scranton, emphasized the importance of the state\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cCourts aren\u2019t political arenas,\u201d he said. \u201cJustice is not for sale and not swayed by politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, courts are to base their decisions on principles and precedent, he said.<\/p>\n

Justices Wecht, Donohue and\u00a0 Dougherty are guided by experience, integrity and commitment to justice, Donahue said.<\/p>\n

Jessica Brittain, Action Together NEPA, emphasized the state\u2019s Supreme Court impacts issues such as women\u2019s rights, public school funding, Medicare and healthcare.<\/p>\n

She pointed out that the current U.S. Supreme Court is composed of nine justices, six of whom were appointed by Republican presidents and three by Democratic presidents.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important, she said, for the state to retain its current balance.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Supreme Court has a 5-2 Democratic majority, so an across-the-board loss for Democrats on Nov. 4 could leave the court in a partisan 2-2 stalemate for two years, including through next year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Action Together NEPA Executive Director Alisha Hoffman-Mirilovich urged voters not only to educate themselves on the issue, but share information on the retention vote with others by word-of-mouth and social media.<\/p>\n

Following the event, many of the speakers headed out to canvass local neighborhoods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speakers and advocates gathered outside Black & Brass Coffee Saturday for a \u201cSpeak Out\u201d event, urging voters to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-14976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-lackawanna-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-scranton","13":"tag-scranton-headlines","14":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}