Porngate-Tarred Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice 'Retires'

LOS ANGELES—A day after Justice Seamus McCaffery (pictured) announced his retirement from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the reason being given for his sudden departure is that it was a last ditch attempt to save his pension, and that it was also more of an expulsion than a resignation. Interestingly, the role porn played in his ultimate fate with the Court is downplayed in the news stories—that despite the fact that it has taken center stage in the media for the past several weeks. “In exchange for his ouster,” the Inquirer reported yesterday, “[McCaffery’s] colleagues on the court agreed to drop their order that the state Judicial Conduct Board say within 30 days whether there was evidence to bring misconduct charges against him. The ethics investigation had the power to “strip him of his lucrative state pension,” the paper added. Though the exact amount of his pension could change if he decides to take it in a lump sum, CBS Pittsburgh reports that it works out to $151,631 a year if taken annually. In explaining the arc of McCaffery’s downfall, however, the Inquirer—which had editorialized against McCaffery in the wake of his somewhat non-apologetic confessions that he had participated in the exchange hundreds of emails containing adult content—mitigated the role porn played in his removal from the court, characterizing it as just one of what it called a “sprawling array of issues” faced by the justice. Other allegations being investigated included a claim by another justice, J. Michael Eakin, “that McCaffery had called him to say he would not be ‘going down alone’ and suggested that Eakin too might be embarrassed by the release of X-rated e-mails”; another regarding referral fees paid to his wife while she worked as his top aide; the charge that he fixed a parking ticket for his wife; and another that he “meddled” with lower courts in Philadelphia. While porngate seems to fade into the background when placed against some of the other allegations levied against McCaffery, the Inquirer suggested that the porn may actually have been a main catalyst in his decision to “retire,” noting, “Under state law, judges in Pennsylvania may lose pensions for ethical transgressions, even if they are never charged with a criminal offense.” Previous actions by the review boards were also cause for concern by the justice. In another case, the paper added, “The Court of Judicial Discipline—for which the Judicial Conduct Board serves as an investigative arm—removed Judge Ann H. Lokuta of Luzerne County for misconduct that included absenteeism and abusive behavior toward her staff. That, in turn, prompted the state retirement system to strip Lokuta of her pension.” As dramatic an outcome as this is, it’s important to remember that McCaffery was just another participant caught up in porngate, which was never supposed to go anywhere near the judiciary, and which was itself a sideshow in yet another internecine political squabble among warring Pennsylvania state officials.