PA Supreme Court

Supreme Court justices are elected for ten year terms, which begin the January following the election and end in January ten years later. If a justice wishes to run for retention for another ten year term, the retention election would be held in the November preceding the expiration of the justice's term. Justices must retire at the end of the year in which they reach age 70.

The tables below identify the current Supreme Court justices, when their terms expire, when they will be eligible to stand for retention, and when they will be subject to mandatory retirement.  Notations of "not eligible" mean that the justice cannot stand for retention, either because he or she will reach the mandatory retirement age before his or her next retention election would occur or because the justice was appointed to an interim vacancy and is elibile to serve only until the next regularly occurring election.  The justices are listed in the order by which future vacancies will occur.

 

Supreme Court Justices-7
Name Next Election Retention Reaches Mandatory Retirement Age Year of Election to Fill Vacancy County Gender

Race

 

Jane Cutler Greenspan

Not eligible   2009 Philadelphia F C
Ronald D. Castille (C.J.) Nov. 2013 2014 2015 Philadelphia M C
Thomas G Saylor Not eligible 2016 2017 Cumberland M C
Max Baer Nov. 2013 2017 2017 Allegheny M C
J. Michael Eakin Nov. 2011 2018 2019 Cumberland M C
Seamus McCaffery Nov. 2017 2020 2021 Philadelphia M C
Debra Todd Nov. 2017 2027 2027 Allegheny F

C

 

          5M/2F no minorities

KEY: "County" indicates the individual's resident county at the time he/she was initially commissioned to the current office. "CJ" or "PJ" next to a name indicates a Chief Justice or President Judge, respectively. In the "Race" column, "C" denotes Caucasian, and "AA" denotes African American.