Ace has a pretty decent write-up on the controversy on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court surrounding Justice Seamus McCaffery, who got in trouble for sending around raunchy e-mails on state computers. Apparently Justice McCaffery and the Chief Justice Castille don’t get along too well with each other. At the end, Ace notes:
Philadelphia Magazine says the war is partly about the power to supervise all of Pennsylvania’s state courts — power Castille doesn’t trust McCaffery with.
I don’t really have much of an opinion on the controversy, and perhaps Chief Justice Castille has legitimate reasons to be worried about Justice McCaffery. But I should note there’s a gun angle to this, in that Justice McCaffery is friendly to the Second Amendment, and Chief Justice Castille, a former Philadelphia District Attorney, has not been.
Supreme Court justices are elected in Pennsylvania, and McCaffery has carried an NRA Endorsement, and has spoken NRA Annual Firearms Law Seminar. I thought his talks were entertaining and funny, as Supreme Court justice presentations go.
I have been somewhat following this PA Supreme Court circus since the ‘porny’ emails have been released in a limited fashion by our “wonderful” AG. You are correct that Chief Justice Castille has an Anti-2A record, but he turned 70 earlier this year.
Why is that important you make ask? Because according to PA Law, on Dec 31st of the year that any Justice of the PA Supreme Court turns 70, they must retire. So this seems to be Castille’s “last hurrah” and we won’t have to worry about his anti-2A views after Dec 31st of this year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_Pennsylvania
Next in line for the Chief Justice spot looks to be Justice Thomas Saylor, as “seniority” is the ranking priviledge of who becomes the next Chief Justice in the PA Supreme Court. I am not that familiar with his views/voting record on the 2A, but it looks like he sided with Castille in this Anti-2A opinion. Looks like he will be Chief Justice for about 2 years, being forced to retire on Dec 31, 2016.
http://www.pagunblog.com/2013/07/30/self-defense-law-in-pennsylvania-changing/
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1831327240067110102
Justice McCaffery is friendly to the Second Amendment
That right there is probably what worries him, that McCaffery doesn’t “think the right way”.