2 groups ask federal court to overturn pay raise

2 groups ask federal court to overturn pay raise

Friday, October 07, 2005

BY CHARLES THOMPSON Of The Patriot-News

Two public interest groups are asking a federal court to overturn Pennsylvania's salary increases for state officials, arguing in part that they can't get a fair hearing in state courts.

The suit was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg by Common Cause Pennsylvania, the League of Women Voters and several individuals.

The plaintiffs seek an immediate order returning salaries to their former levels and a final ruling declaring the salary act unconstitutional.

The groups also want to abolish several of the parliamentary maneuvers used to pass the pay-raise law, which the groups said have let a small band of leaders hijack the legislative process.

"It is our sincerest hope that this litigation will be successful in returning Pennsylvania to being a state of law, rather than the playground of a whimsical political elite," said Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause.

The salary bill boosted salaries of lawmakers, executive branch officials and judges by 16 percent to 54 percent. Lawmakers approved the bill at 2 a.m. July 7 -- with no public debate -- before adjourning for the summer.

In the ensuing months, Pennsylvanians have lit up the airwaves of talk-radio shows, organized a protest at the Capitol and launched government reform efforts.

The defendants are Gov. Ed Rendell, who signed the law, and Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr., who issues the paychecks. Rendell has said he would support repealing a provision that allowed lawmakers to skirt a constitutional ban on midterm raises.

Rendell's press secretary, Kate Philips, declined comment, other than to note the defense will be handled by Attorney General Tom Corbett's office.

The plaintiffs said they went to federal court because violations of the U.S. Constitution have occurred, chief among them the probable denial of rights to a fair hearing in Pennsylvania's courts.

State judges received pay raises under the law, and can't hear a suit seeking to overturn that law, they said.

"This means every judge on the Commonwealth and Supreme courts in Pennsylvania has an absolutely direct conflict of interest," a violation of due process rights set out in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, lead attorney P. Anthony Rossi said. The suit also alleged violations of equal protection and free speech guarantees.

Rossi said the manner in which the bill was introduced by House and Senate leaders effectively squashed input from rank-and-file legislators and the public.

Duquesne Law School professor Bruce Ledewitz, a constitutional law expert, said the suit asks the federal court to break new legal ground, but added that may be warranted here "because no other state Legislature has done such an outrageous thing" as tying the judges' raises to their own.

But Drew Crompton, counsel to Senate President Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair, said the pay-raise law would hold up in state and federal courts, as it has in the past.

Common Cause and other plaintiffs in the federal suit had hoped midstate political activist Eugene Stilp would drop a separate challenge to the pay-raise bill he filed in Commonwealth Court this summer and join their case.

That's important because the district court, if it agrees federal rights have been violated, could assume jurisdiction over underlying state violations, Rossi said. If Stilp loses his state court case, however, the federal court may be less likely to consider those issues.

Stilp noted the federal courts threw out a pay raise suit in 1996, and said it's better to stay in the state courts.

CHARLES THOMPSON: 705-5724 or cthompson@patriot-news.com

©2005 The Patriot-News

Source: http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1128676912204230.xml&coll=1

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