Justice Newman to resign from Pennsylvania high court
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HARRISBURG -- Justice Sandra Schultz Newman, who narrowly won a new term on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year despite voter backlash over judicial pay raises that doomed a colleague, said yesterday she will step down at the end of this year.
Justice Newman, the first woman elected to Pennsylvania's highest court, said she plans to head the appellate-practice group at the Philadelphia-based Cozen O'Connor law firm, as well as a dispute-resolution unit that she intends to create. Her brother is a partner in the firm.
Justice Newman, 68, would have been forced to leave the bench in about two years, when she reaches the mandatory retirement age.
She said she will miss the collegiality on the state's highest court and the challenge of settling important questions of law.
"It was time to move on to a new endeavor," she said yesterday.
Gov. Ed Rendell is expected to nominate an interim successor for Justice Newman within 90 days. The seat will become open for a 10-year term in the 2007 election, said Thomas B. Darr, the state's deputy court administrator.
In a statement, Mr. Rendell hailed Justice Newman as "a capable jurist and trailblazer for women across the commonwealth."
Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy said in a statement that he and the other justices will miss Justice Newman's "effervescent and generous spirit."
"She has been a tough-minded, principled and dedicated colleague," Justice Cappy said. "Her interest has always been to serve the public with integrity, a strong desire to ensure access to justice for all Pennsylvanians, and a firm commitment to the rule of law."
The Legal Intelligencer, a law journal based in Philadelphia, first reported her plans to leave the bench on its Web site yesterday.
Justice Newman, who served for two years on the state Commonwealth Court before being elected to the Supreme Court in 1995, was retained for a second 10-year term in November 2005. In the same election, Russell M. Nigro became the first justice to be turned out of office in the 36 years that the state has been holding such elections.
Retention elections, in which incumbent judges run unopposed for additional terms, traditionally produce lopsided votes of approval to keep them on the bench. Only 54 percent of the voters supported Justice Newman's retention.
Justice Nigro's defeat and the narrowness of Justice Newman's victory were widely attributed to voter rancor over the Legislature's secretive handling of a bill that increased the salaries of legislators, judges and top executive-branch officials. In the legislative primaries in May, 17 incumbent lawmakers were defeated by members of their own parties for the same reason.
Justice Newman, who spent more than $300,000 on her campaign, said she feels that the retention elections were distorted by the pay-raise flap.
"I just think it's very sad when you have to run for a retention [election] and you have to put [on] a major campaign when there shouldn't be one," she said.
While she said she prefers electing judges to appointing them, she said judges, once elected, should not be required to run again.
"Once you elect someone they shouldn't be indebted to voters any more," she said.
Justice Newman, a Philadelphia native who lives in Gladwyne in Montgomery County, was the first woman elected to the Supreme Court, although there previously have been female justices who were appointed to the bench.
Her son, Jonathan, is a Philadelphia lawyer and chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.
First Published November 18, 2006 12:00 am
