While judicial elections generally don’t make news, this year’s statewide contests will shape the future of Pennsylvania for years to come.
And if you are a Pennsylvania resident who cares about the environment and fighting climate change, this election is your chance to take action to support clear air, clean water and natural resource conservation for communities across our commonwealth and for future generations.
The stakes are even higher this year, when our state Supreme Court’s pro-environment majority is at stake and when the extremist U.S. Supreme Court is consistently failing to check the rampant overreach of an unhinged President Trump.
In this critical moment in our nation’s history, state courts play an essential role in protecting our rights to vote, to express ourselves and to have access to clean air and pure water.
Pennsylvania is one of the few states in the nation that elects every level of the judiciary. This year, we have key elections to retain three strong state Supreme Court judges, as well as to retain and elect new judges to our state’s two statewide appellate courts, the Commonwealth Court and the Superior Court.
These elections will determine whether our courts will continue to vigorously apply our state Constitution’s groundbreaking Environmental Rights Amendment, which protects Pennsylvanians’ rights to clean air, pure water and access to open space.
The high court, shaped by these justices, has stood up to billionaires in the fossil fuel industry by issuing groundbreaking rulings to hold polluters accountable. The court also stood up for the rule of law and put the brakes on previous Republican gerrymandering efforts by ensuring that our state’s congressional maps were fair, and have repeatedly given voters a voice by ensuring fair and equal access to the ballot box with critical rulings on mail in voting procedures.
This impressive track record is why these justices are now squarely in the crosshairs of ultra-conservative extremists, who stand ready to pour millions of dollars into a campaign to unseat them and reshape the court — removing one of the few remaining checks to Trump’s unbridled power.
Booting these justices from the bench is the first step in a conservative plot to install more pliable justices who favor dirty energy projects and corporate polluters over public health.
We need to stand up and fight back against radical MAGA attempts to politicize state courts to undermine democracy.
We can never allow these things to happen. Not in Pennsylvania. Not now. Not this year.
READ: Trump’s Justice Department Widens Its Request for Pennsylvania Election Information
And while the high court’s decisions can be felt in practically every area of our lives, the impact of these elections will be particularly keenly felt in the fight against climate change.
We are one of the few states that guarantees in its constitution that “the people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”
While conservative courts consistently minimized the importance of these words, an emboldened pro-environment majority has put them into action over the past decade.
And in the face of Trump’s attacks on our clean energy future, their work is more important than ever.
The court is currently considering a case that will have seismic implications for the future of clean energy in our commonwealth: whether Pennsylvania will join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), along with 10 other states in the northeast.
READ: With Washington Stepping Back on Clean Energy, Harrisburg Must Step Up
Joining RGGI will represent the single biggest step the commonwealth will have taken to curb climate change and accelerate the transition to a clean, renewable energy future, by providing hundreds of millions of dollars each year to invest in clean energy projects that lower energy costs while creating union jobs.
Not only will the RGGI decision impact Pennsylvanians rights to clean air, but the Court has also ruled on the right of environmental organizations to intervene in cases, and on a case to protect public and private lands under the Environmental Rights Amendment.
Ultra-conservatives want to tilt the scales in favor of billionaire polluters in this case and other cases like it to come.
That’s why it’s essential that voters turn out to retain a slate of historically pro-environment justices. Our environmental future depends on a “Yes” vote to retain Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin M. Dougherty and David N. Wecht.
Check your voter registration, apply for a mail in ballot, and make sure to vote this fall.
