Democratic Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan and the county are asking the state Supreme Court to consider their appeal of a May county court ruling that the county’s Home Rule Charter controls the process of filling former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin’s vacant seat.
Gaughan and the county, co-petitioners in litigation challenging the charter process that tasks the Lackawanna County Democratic Committee with playing a major role in replacing McGloin, have already appealed last month’s ruling in Commonwealth Court. But, in a filing Wednesday, they asked the state Supreme Court to invoke what’s known as a King’s Bench power — rarely exercised authority that allows the Supreme Court to immediately consider any pending case.
“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has the power to consider any case pending in a lower court and even some matters not pending in the courts when it sees the need to address an issue of ‘immediate public importance,’” according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.
If the Supreme Court declines to invoke its King’s Bench power, the appeal would continue in Commonwealth Court.
A panel of Senior Judges Carmen D. Minora, Vito P. Geroulo and Robert A. Mazzoni issued the ruling May 22, a month after hearing oral arguments in the case and about three months after McGloin left office. With Minora and Geroulo in the majority and Mazzoni dissenting, the panel ruled the county’s Home Rule Charter supersedes a state rule of judicial administration that would have removed the county Democratic Committee from the replacement process.
It was a legal victory for the Democratic Committee that the charter tasks with submitting the names of three potential candidates to fill the vacancy for consideration by the commissioned judges of the county court. That process played out controversially in late February when the committee held a closed-door vote to submit former county Economic Development Director Brenda Sacco, Olyphant Borough Council President James Baldan and Scranton School Director Robert J. Casey as potential appointees.
Gaughan and the county challenged the charter process in March, arguing it violates Pennsylvania Rule of Judicial Administration 1908. Adopted by the state Supreme Court in 2019, Rule 1908 says the county court alone, not a political party, “shall receive applications from any interested candidates for the position” pursuant to a deadline established by the court.
While the majority of the split judicial panel ruled in favor of the charter process, all three judges unanimously agreed that the county lacks authority to proceed as a party to the litigation because Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak, one of two sitting commissioners, did not authorize its participation. The three-judge panel did rule, however, that Gaughan can proceed in his official capacity as commissioner, an element of the broader ruling the Democratic Committee is challenging in a cross-appeal to the Commonwealth Court.
The Democratic Committee “believes that the Court of Common Pleas erred in determining that Commissioner Gaughan had standing, because his formal rights, duties, andobligations are not affected by who fills this vacancy,” attorneys for the committee wrote in a recent filing.
That filing also argued the judicial panel correctly determined that the Home Rule Charter, not Rule 1908, governs the process of replacing McGloin — a ruling Gaughan and the county want the state Supreme Court to overturn.
In their application asking the Supreme Court to exercise its King’s Bench power, attorneys for Gaughan and the county contend the judicial panel’s decision “weds the trial court to the political whims of unelected political party officials” and diminishes the neutrality of the courts.
“The issue here is of interest not only to residents of Lackawanna County who will be governed by the replacement, but also to all Pennsylvania courts of common pleas judges required to make public appointments and all Pennsylvania residents affected by those appointments,” it reads. “A clear, final ruling from this Court is necessary to ensure the integrity of the appointment process and to promote confidence in candidates selected by the courts to fill vacancies in public office.”
Gaughan and the county also reiterated their position that Rule 1908 supersedes the charter process in a brief filed earlier this month in Commonwealth Court. The judicial panel’s decision should be reversed and the county court directed to receive applications from any registered county Democratic voter interested in succeeding McGloin, they contend.
“This required outcome would liberate the Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County from the local backroom party politics that imposed on the Court three unvetted ‘candidates’ for the Office of County Commissioner,” their Commonwealth Court brief notes.
Gaughan and the county also contend the senior county judges erred in striking the county as a party to the matter.
When the state Supreme Court might decide whether to invoke its King’s Bench power is unclear.