The Pennsylvania Supreme Court gives a preelection carrot to voters - and the carrot is rotten

On September 15, 2016, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the court ridden by multiple scandals

• (refusal to discipline the Kids-for-Cash judge until the feds convicted him and sent him to prison for 27 years,
• the Porngate where there was no discipline imposed on anybody but the whistleblowers;
• suspending the license and convicting the Pennsylvania Attorney General who tried to hold judges accountable,
• the recent U.S. Supreme Court reversal of a death penalty case in Williams v Pennsylvania with a scathing criticism of the now retired Judge Donald Castille who sat as a judge on cases where he signed the death penalty applications as a prosecutor)

made a press release announcing to the public that now the court makes it easier for the public "to express desire to serve" on multiple committees, councils and boards that "help the court" in its business.

The press release confirmed, of course, that only some of the appointments will be for non-attorneys, and that "many" "volunteer" positions require "legal training" or "expertise" - in other words, are reserved for attorneys only, and, remember, attorneys are people whose livelihood is in the hands of Pennsylvania Supreme Court, because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court regulates law licenses in the state.

Remember how quickly they yanked the license of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane when she started to investigate judges for misconduct in office?  One of the judges who Kane investigated actually sat on the panel that suspended Kane, and only after suspending his "enemy", he recused.  An extremely honorable man.  "Honorable" is part of their job titles, so that makes them all very honorable, you know.

The press-release claimed that volunteers "serve" as part of "independent agencies" helping the court, but, seriously, when the majority of such "agencies" are populated by lawyers, people whose livelihood is in the hands of the court, people totally dependent on the good grace of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, how can such agencies be "independent"?

The press-release said that:

And, the first "volunteer vacancies" were supposed to be published by October 3, 2016.

Today is October 20, 2016, so I decided to look, which "volunteer vacancies" were published, and how many of them are for non-attorneys.

The Committees and Boards are on the far bottom right of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court website:

Of course, when you click on the "Committees, Boards and Advisory Groups" in the bottom right, you are immediately discouraged from further applying for "volunteering" in such "Committees, Boards and Advisory Groups" by this announcement/warning:

So, there is no independence in these "groups" where MOST "volunteers" are - admittedly - attorneys, people whose livelihood depends on the whims of judges of that court.

If after that warning, the reader still wants to waste time on these "boards", further listed are "available positions" for two "boards":  Continuing Legal Education Board, and Orphans' Court Procedural Rules Committee.

So, I clicked on "more information".

Here are the requirements to apply for "volunteering" on the Continuing Legal Education Board:

Why only attorneys are allowed to set rules as to how attorneys should be taught and, especially, taught about ethics - nobody knows.  Doesn't law licensing - and CLE is part of it - exist to protect consumers of legal services?  And don't consumers of legal services, those allegedly sought to be protected, have a right to see how exactly they are being protected?  And set rules of how attorneys must be educated?  With the help of experts, if a need arises?

But no, the CLE Board is yet another secret society excluding ordinary people, the "nonlawyers", and decides (allegedly) how to protect those nonlawyers behind closed doors.

Here are the requirements to apply for "volunteering" on the Orphans' Court Procedural Rules Committee:

While there is no explicit requirement for members of this "Committee" to be attorneys, I wonder how many lay members will be allowed.

The answer is in the current composition of that Committee: there are NO lay members there.

So, the pre-election carrot to voters that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court does SOMETHING to clean up its stables turns out to be a rotten carrot.  It is, and is going to be - until and unless the public takes the appointment power to these "Committees" from the hands of the courts and make them into a really independent agencies, populated by non-attorneys - what it is now.

An attempt to deceive and appease the public before the elections.

A rotten carrot.