Pennsylvania is in the unenviable position of having one of its Supreme Court justices being investigated by a grand jury. Here we go again — in 1994 then-Justice Rolf Larsen was indicted and convicted for criminal conspiracy and then impeached by the state Senate. This time, the grand jury that has been investigating state Sen. Jane Orie and her sister Janine Orie for alleged improper use of government staff for election and political work apparently has turned its attention to their sister, Justice Joan Orie Melvin.
The allegations that have been revealed thus far in the indictments handed down by the grand jury detail extensive use of staff time in the offices of Senator Orie and then-Superior Court Judge Orie Melvin on behalf of Orie Melvin’s judicial election campaigns for the Supreme Court. While we know from the Bonusgate trials that such use of staff for legislative campaigns was — unfortunately — all too common, the allegations about Orie Melvin’s staff and her judicial campaigns, if proven true, reveal some major problems with our system of electing judges.
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