Supreme Court

ATLANTIC CITY - New Jersey's chief justice didn't opine on the extraordinary upheaval and political controversies in the state's court system Friday during his annual "State of the Judiciary" speech at the state's bar association convention. But the new president of the New Jersey State Bar Association most certainly did, in an interview slamming as "borderline unethical" Republican Gov. Christie's recent criticism of one judge's ruling. In introducing the chief justice, bar president Kevin P. McCann, a Democrat with a practice in Bridgeton, told the gathering that judges should not be "looking over their shoulder" or "second-guessed by someone else.

and Angela Couloumbis INQUIRER HARRISBURG BUREAU PITTSBURGH - State Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, stripped of her duties, is vowing to fight the criminal charges filed against her Friday by Allegheny County prosecutors. The charges involve the use of taxpayer-paid staff for political campaigning. Melvin is facing nine criminal counts, including theft of services and conspiracy to tamper with evidence - all in connection with allegations she used her state-funded staff to perform campaign work.

Nominating two in each party. Democratic Bucks 47   3,419   10,997   5,130   5,641    Chester 61   1,538   4,707   4,273   3,754    Delaware 95   4,854   13,023   10,581   8,116    Montgomery 51   4,012   11,736   9,612   5,844    Philadelphia 96   58,157   118,865   50,755   89,937    Statewide 75   171,818   337,966   365,525   201,892    ...

More than a week has passed since it was learned there would be an imminent opening on the U.S. Supreme Court, and America's best-known judge has yet to hear from America's best-known saxophone player. "I'm not a confidant of the president, even though I did go to the inauguration," said Joseph A. Wapner, who presides over TV's "The People's Court. " "I don't know him. I've never met him. I don't know how he thinks about the Supreme Court. I'm hopeful about his appointment, but I don't know any more than you. " So, the question begs, why not Wapner?

While breaches of ethics and conflicts of interest have seemed endemic to the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, the Supreme Court normally manages to steer clear of such tawdry behavior. Its members stay out of the public eye and conduct their deliberations behind closed doors. They go so far as to avoid giving speeches to partisans of one side of an issue that may come before the court. Whatever the justices' politics when they took the bench, whatever their written opinions, the court as institution has managed to retain the image of a neutral island in a partisan sea. That's why it's so hard to absorb how Justice Sandra Day O'Connor could have contemplated giving a special private briefing at the Supreme Court to big donors to the Republican Party.

HUMAN CLONING and hate crimes would seem to have little in common. But in a series of shortsighted decisions on the constitutional limits of congressional power, the U.S. Supreme Court has managed to make it harder to ban cloning as well as hate crimes. This will no doubt come as a surprise to opponents of abortion, who oppose cloning on a moral basis and are eager to outlaw it. Since the New Deal, Congress has been free to regulate any activity that had substantial effects on interstate commerce.

The retirement of Justice Thurgood Marshall and the nomination of U.S. Appeals Judge Clarence Thomas does no more than mark the end of a transition that began with the appointment of Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1969. But we should not for that reason expect a court that is monolithic, predictable and even illiberal - in the historic sense of the word. What can we expect from the next Supreme Court? It is likely that the disputes will center on the structure of government and the limits of its power to control individual and group choice.

In the legal equivalent of running up the score, the NFL is going to the Supreme Court in search of a bigger victory in an antitrust tussle over team merchandise than it already won from a lower court. The Supreme Court could decide as early as tomorrow whether it will hear the case, which involves American Needle Inc.'s challenge to the league's exclusive contract for selling headwear such as caps and hats with team logos on them. American Needle of Buffalo Grove, Ill., also is urging the high court to review.

President Obama recently came under fire for suggesting the Supreme Court should defer to the "democratically elected Congress" that enacted the health-care law. One critic, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said, "The American people should be able to expect that their president will defend the independence of the court, not undermine it. " While we don't know how the justices will rule this summer, the president's remarks actually reflect...

Joan Orie Melvin says that she is innocent of the four felonies and five misdemeanors that a grand jury charged her with last week, and claims that the investigation and charges were politically motivated. As a citizen, she's entitled to the presumption of her innocence. But as a state Supreme Court justice, she is subject to a higher standard; her actions impact the perception of fairness and justice for the entire court system. As the Philadelphia Bar Association said in a statement last week urging her resignation, "We cannot have a sitting justice who has been indicted.

ATLANTIC CITY - New Jersey's chief justice didn't opine on the extraordinary upheaval and political controversies in the state's court system Friday during his annual "State of the Judiciary" speech at the state's bar association convention. But the new president of the New Jersey State Bar Association most certainly did, in an interview slamming as "borderline unethical" Republican Gov. Christie's recent criticism of one judge's ruling. In introducing the chief justice, bar president Kevin P. McCann, a Democrat with a practice in Bridgeton, told the gathering that judges should not be "looking over their shoulder" or "second-guessed by someone else.

PITTSBURGH - State Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, stripped of her duties, vowed to fight the criminal charges filed against her Friday and said she had no plans to quit Pennsylvania's highest court. "My faith will see me through this," Melvin said outside the Municipal Court Building. She denied what she called "these politically motivated charges. " The charges brought by Allegheny County prosecutors involve use of taxpayer-paid staff for political campaigning - and are rooted in evidence that emerged in the case against Melvin's sister, State Sen. Jane Orie, convicted in March of similar charges.

An Allegheny County grand jury's indictment Friday of state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin represents a new low for Pennsylvania's highest court, but it could prove to be a valuable driving force for reforming the state's discredited system of electing its appellate judges. Melvin, 56, says she will fight the criminal charges that she misused her taxpayer-funded staff while serving as a Superior Court judge by having it do political campaign work in her 2009 pursuit of a state Supreme Court seat.

The Philadelphia School District has asked the state Supreme Court to consider overturning a recent Commonwealth Court ruling about charter schools that could have dire consequences for Philadelphia and other cash-strapped districts. The lower court ruled in April that the district had illegally capped enrollment at the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School, upholding Education Secretary Ronald J. Tomalis' finding that the charter was entitled to $1.3 million that otherwise would go to the district.

With a combination of short jail sentences and aggressive collection of bail, fines, and restitution payments, the city courts are showing small but encouraging progress on cutting into Philadelphia's fugitive problem. For decades, career criminals have seen an arrest as a mere inconvenience. At arraignments, they're given court dates and then fail to appear with few consequences. So they just laugh on the way to their next crimes. A 2009 Inquirer series about the problem detailed a criminal-justice system collapsing under an oppressive caseload partly because it had one of the highest fugitive rates in the nation.

The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday abo**ut Arizona's attempt to purge itself of all undocumented immigrants — and even those who "look" illegal — and the court's questions suggest that it may support the controversial law that the Grand Canyon State adopted in 2010. Arizona's SB 1070 — the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act"— relies on state and local law enforcement to get rid of illegal immigrants. The most controversial provisions require police and other law-enforcement officials to ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop, authorizes local police to make an arrest without a warrant of any person they believe is removable from the United States, makes it a misdemeanor to fail to carry proper immigration documents and makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants to look for work.

THERE'S AN an old saying that behind every great man is a great woman. Apart from its obvious sexist slant, there was considerable truth to the maxim in the case of former Pennsylvania Chief Justice Robert N.C. Nix Jr. and his wife, German-born Renate Elizabeth Nix. "She was very supportive of him," said her daughter, Kimberly Bernhard. "She was the backup. " She traveled with her husband on his many trips on judicial business, took care of the entertainment, and generally helped ease the burdens of his presiding over the state's highest court.

President Obama recently came under fire for suggesting the Supreme Court should defer to the "democratically elected Congress" that enacted the health-care law. One critic, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said, "The American people should be able to expect that their president will defend the independence of the court, not undermine it. " While we don't know how the justices will rule this summer, the president's remarks actually reflect...