Amidst two state Supreme Court scandals, Chief Justice Ronald Castille has once again picked up the cause of judicial merit selection, telling the Pennsylvania Prothonoraries’ and Clerks of Courts’ Association he sees no reasons for those positions to be elected.

Justice Castille recently flip-flopped his position on the proposed Philadelphia Family Court building and attorney Jeffery Rotwitt’s role in its construction. The Philadelphia Inquirer asserted when first asked about Mr. Rotwitt’s dual role when the story broke he got angry, but the Justice told the paper Sunday that “if I was in the Marine Corps, the guy would be stripped of his rank. He'd be drummed out.”

Chief Justice Ronald Castille

Mr. Rotwitt was being paid by both the court and the developer.

Justice Joan Orie Melvin is under investigation after her sisters state Sen. Jane Orie (R – Allegheny) and Janine Orie were charged with using government resources to help Justice Orie Melvin get elected in 2004 and 2009.

“The way I see it, it should be a professional person's job, and they should be answerable to the court system,” Justice Castille said. “We [the Supreme Court justices] just want a more efficient system that can handle all the paperwork in a modern judicial system and do it correctly. If we can do it more efficiently, then that's a plus for the citizens.”

“It’s not new. If you look back [Justice Castille] talked about this for a long time,” said Shira Goodman, deputy director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, a court reform group. “He's talked about the electoral process not being the way for many years. I don't think that one thing undermines the other.”

In order for judicial merit selection to take hold, voters would have to approve the measure in a referendum.

Tim Potts, president and co-founder of Democracy Rising PA, a Harrisburg-based good government group, does not see Justice Castille’s call for merit selection as legitimate.

“We have been quite vocal critics of Justice Castille, we don't think he belongs there. We don't think he has the temperament to be on the court and we don't think he has the managerial competence to be in that position,” Mr. Potts said.

For Mr. Potts judicial merit selection is a matter to be discussed in a constitutional convention.

“For us it has never been a matter of election vs. appointment. If there was a perfect system, all 50 states would be using it,” Mr. Potts said.

“The governor has on several occasions here in his second term suggested that we should move to a judicial merit selection instead of election them in the polls,” said Gary Tuma, press secretary for Gov. Ed Rendell. “The important thing is to free justices from this requirement of raising money from the legal community, and in some cases some people who are going to be appearing in front of them in court.”

“Right now we have a really deplorable electoral system, but that doesn't guarantee that we'll have a good merit selection system,” Mr. Potts said.

Matt Coyne is an intern at the PA Independent. He can be reached at intern@paindependent.com