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Three of the seven Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices are up for a retention election to determine if they will get a new ten-year term. The voting will be part of the ballot on November 4th, and will appear as a yes (to retain) or no (to remove).
Since the institution of the retention system for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1968, only one justice has not been retained. It is possible that none of the three justices on the ballot this year will be retained.
Justices Christine Donahue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht are fighting to maintain their spots on the court. Pennsylvania is one of only eight states that have partisan elections for its Supreme Court Justices when they are initially elected, meaning that the judges run attached to a political party. Although their party will not appear next to them on the ballot this year, all three justices up for retention ran as Democrats originally. With the court currently split 5-2 in favor of Democrats, the court could swing back to Republicans if two or more justices are not retained. Both parties are aware of this. More than $7 million has already been poured into this election.
“Even though we focus a lot on the national level, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has a ton of influence over decisions that impact all of us much more on an everyday basis than we might be aware of,” said AP Government teacher Danielle Gross. Gross added that for SCH students who are eligible to vote, “I hope that they are doing a lot of research to see what they think about the judges. You can look at some of the decisions that they’ve made over the last 10 years.” In closing, she said, “I want people to know that when you go into the voting booth, you can bring information with you. So, doing that research in advance, you can bring in notes about what you want to do.”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court handles many high-impact cases, including ones on controversial topics, like abortion or gun control. Depending on the outcome of this election, it could affect the way that the court handles the cases and subsequently the state policy in Pennsylvania.