The FFRF Action Fund is pleased to endorse Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht in their reelection bids.
The justices will face retention elections on Nov. 4 to determine if they will serve a successive 10-year term. In retention elections, voters decide whether an incumbent judge should remain in office for another term, and the judge does not have an opponent on the ballot. Voters will cast a “Yes-No” vote, and a judge must receive a majority “Yes” vote to retain their seat.
Control of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is at stake in these elections. The seven-member court currently has five Democratic justices and two Republican justices, and all three justices up for election are Democrats. Although retention elections typically have low turnout and rarely result in justices being removed from the court, the Republican base has identified Pennsylvania as an opportunity to flip a Democratic-majority Supreme Court in a swing state. Campaigning against retention can be as simple as saying “Vote No.” If the justices lose their retention races, control of the court will be up for grabs in open, partisan elections in 2027.
The state Supreme Court’s Democratic majority has overseen crucial decisions over the past decade, such as intervening in a congressional redistricting plan made by legislative Republicans, upholding Democratic Covid-19 mitigation efforts and reinforcing state voting laws against a multitude of conservative challenges, including those from Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign. If the Democratic majority is lost, Pennsylvania could face threats to reproductive freedom, rollbacks to voting rights and ballot access and unchecked gerrymandering. Below are more details on each judge:
- Justice Donohue was elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 2015 after a distinguished career as a Superior Court judge and 27 years of experience as a civil trial attorney. She also launched an initiative to provide young attorneys with opportunities to gain courtroom experience, called Project LITIGATE, and taught legal ethics at Duquesne University Law School. In a 2024 majority decision requiring a lower court to hear a challenge to the constitutionality of a state law that limits the use of Medicaid dollars to cover the cost of abortions, Donohue indicated that she understands the Pennsylvania Constitution to have a state constitutional right to abortion, securing “the fundamental right to reproductive autonomy.”
Please learn more about Donohue by visiting her campaign website.
- Justice Dougherty, before being elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2015, served on Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas starting in 2001. He was the longest-serving administrative judge in Philadelphia’s history, having been appointed administrative judge of Philadelphia’s Family Court in 2005. Dougherty requested to be assigned to Family Court to help the lives of the most vulnerable citizens, and he also initiated numerous diversionary programs to aid the city’s at-risk children. In 2014, Dougherty was reassigned to the Trial Division, where he oversaw Pennsylvania’s largest court system. He aims for Pennsylvania to serve as a national model for access to justice, alternative sentencing and transparency within the court system. Dougherty represents the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on the statewide Dependency Court Improvement Program, the Autism and the Courts Initiative and the Supreme Court Behavioral Health Initiative.
Please learn more about Dougherty by visiting his campaign website.
- Justice Wecht served on the Superior Court and Allegheny County’s Court of Common Pleas before being elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2015. He served in the Family Division, handling domestic relations cases and juvenile cases, where he worked to make the system less cumbersome for families under stress. Before taking the bench, Wecht was elected to the Allegheny County Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans’ Court, where he created a free will consultation program for seniors and authored a state law preventing accused murderers from controlling their victims’ estates. On the Supreme Court, Wecht has safeguarded democracy, protected the Pennsylvania Constitution’s guarantee of a “thorough and efficient system of public education,” and defended women’s privacy rights and health care choices.
Please learn more about Wecht by visiting his campaign website.