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PA Supremes Say “Yes” To The Pay-Jacking
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| Contributor | Chronicler |
| Last Edited | Chronicler Sep 17, 2006 04:05pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Thursday, September 14, 2006 10:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | September 14, 2006
The PA Supreme Court today:
* upheld the way the pay raise was passed;
* declared “unvouchered expenses” to be unconstitutional but allowed lawmakers to keep them – and the higher pensions resulting from them; and
* declared the non-severability clause “unenforceable,” thereby upholding the pay raise for some 1,200 judges throughout the state and local judicial system – including back pay to the date the pay raise was repealed last November.
This is a conspicuously bad decision by a court that has conspicuous contempt for citizens. It is further evidence of the need for a Citizens’ Constitutional Convention to assert the rights of citizens and to reform our courts. Here’s what the decision means to us:
1. The Supreme Court has declared again -- as it did in the gambling case – that stealth legislation is OK with them. They unanimously chose to ignore what the Constitution plainly says, what it plainly meant when it was written, and what the citizens plainly want from their government. From now on, the legislature will use this patently unconstitutional procedure any time it wants to hide what it’s doing from the people, knowing that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania will not lift a pen to defend the democratic rights of citizens
2. The Supreme Court’s ruling allows lawmakers to profit from an admittedly unconstitutional act The Court said lawmakers who took the unvouchered expenses “acted in good-faith reliance on the presumption of [the pay raise law’s] constitutionality.” Of course, there was nothing but bad faith in the way the pay raise was enacted – not one shred of good faith in the entire year-long process that was hidden from the citizens... |
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