EDITORIAL: Whistleblower protection for all

Feb. 22--For more than a decade Pennsylvania has had the most scandal-ridden court system in the United States.

The infamous "kids for cash" juvenile court scandal in Luzerne County probably is the worst judicial scandal in American history, all the more so because the state Supreme Court blithely declined to intervene when it was begged to do so.

And over the last four years, three members of the high court itself had to resign in disgrace. Former Justice Joan Orie Melvin was convicted in a case involving misuse of her staff for political purposes. Former Justices Seamus McCaffrey and J. Michael Eakin were forced to resign for their roles in the "porngate" email scandal.

Several other magisterial judges and common pleas judges have had to resign in recent years, face charges, or both, for a range of offenses from sexual harassment to insurance fraud.

A Feb. 17 ruling by the Commonwealth Court will do nothing to increase public confidence in a court system diminished by corruption. A three-judge panel ruled unanimously that the state whistleblower statute, protecting public employees who report wrongdoing in their offices, does not apply to the judiciary.

The case arose from Washington County. A lower court dismissed a suit brought by a former common pleas court employee, who claimed to have been fired for cooperating with police in an investigation of funds that allegedly had been misappropriated by the juvenile probation office.

The fired employee contended that the code of employee conduct in force when he was fired referenced the whistleblower statute. But writing for the panel, Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer said that reference is not enough to make the law applicable to the judiciary or to indicate that the Supreme Court intended for the judiciary to come under the law's jurisdiction.

Jubelirer cited the state constitution's separation of powers, holding that only the judiciary can regulate the branch's standards.

Regardless of whether the case is appealed further to the Supreme Court, that court should ensure that judicial branch employees are covered by whistleblower protection, whether by state law that covers everyone else or by a specific order of the court.

Honest workers who report wrongdoing are a primary line of defense against corruption. They must be free to speak without fear of retaliation.

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