Lawsuit over Pa. officials' pay raise dismissed
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HARRISBURG -- A federal judge today threw out a lawsuit over last year's judicial pay raises, saying the plaintiffs had no standing and that the case became moot when the General Assembly repealed the raises in November.
The suit sought to prevent future use of political tactics that led to approval of the raises in the middle of the night July 7 without notice to the public.
Plaintiffs, led by Common Cause of Pennsylvania and the League of Women Voters, said their constitutional right to due process was violated because they had no opportunity to comment before passage and because the raises were negotiated in private conversations between legislators, Gov. Ed Rendell and State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy.
Plaintiffs' attorney P. Anthony Rossi had argued that the talks were part of a secretive scheme to bypass the legislative process.
U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane, though, said the discussions were proper and that the plaintiffs were represented in the process by the officials they elected.
"Tempting though it may be, the court has no authority to dictate to the Pennsylvania General Assembly how that body must conduct itself," Judge Kane wrote in her decision. "Longstanding constitutional principles absolutely forbid this court from dictating . . . how to distribute power and responsibility for proposing and developing legislation."
The political process, not the courtroom, is the proper venue for the dispute, she wrote.
That has borne itself out already in the defeat of 17 legislative incumbents in the May primary, largely involving one-issue races centering on the raises. Voters also had their say in November when they ousted a Supreme Court justice for the first time in state history.
Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, had no immediate comment.
More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
First Published June 12, 2006 12:00 am
