Free Republic

In an announcement on Monday afternoon, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht said that he is changing his party affiliation from Democrat to Independent. Wecht, who was retained by the voters of the Commonwealth last November for a 10-year term, stated that his “jurisprudence and adjudication have always been independent, and they always will be. Now, my voting registration reflects that independence as well.” Pennsylvania’s highest court saw Democrats with a 5-2 majority with Wecht joining fellow Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, Daniel McCaffrey and Chief Justice Debra Todd. Sallie Updyke Mundy and Brobson are the Republican-elected justices on the...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvanians have voted to retain three Democratic state Supreme Court justices, granting them additional terms on the bench after an unusually contentious, multimillion-dollar election. Republicans and their allies had hoped to defeat the justices and put their seats on the 2027 ballot, opening a path to flip the court. The Democratic majority has handed down critical rulings over the past decade, upholding mail voting and throwing out a congressional map that it found unfairly benefited the GOP. Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht were on the ballot Tuesday. They were first elected in 2015 in a...