KYW 1060 reported on the American Judicature Society report on the degree of overlap between contributors to the campaigns of Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices and those appearing before those justices in Court.
The news report quoted PMC’s Lynn Marks explaining that although the report does not draw any conclusions about whether the contributions influenced judicial decisionmaking, “Each dollar raised and spent raises doubts in the public’s mind about whether or not justice is for sale.”
The report quoted Pennsylvania’s Chief Justice Castille’s response:

‘I actually share that opinion to some degree myself. . . . The money does have an outward appearance of a lack of fairness in the system.’ Castille says that’s one of the drawbacks to elected judges.

We very much agree with this assessment and hope Pennsylvanians will have the opportunity to determine whether to change how we select appellate court judges.