Case Title: Shambach v. Bickhart (Snyder County Commissioner-Election) (Dissenting Opinion)

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State: pennsylvania

Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Date: 2004-03-26T00:00:00Z

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[J-76-2004] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA MIDDLE DISTRICT GREGORY L. SHAMBACH, Appellant v. RICHARD W. BICKHART, Appellee. In re: Pennsylvania General Election for Snyder County Commissioner, November 4, 2003 Appeal of Gregory L. Shambach of Recount and Certification of Election Returns : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : No. 951 MAL 2003 Petition for Allowance of Appeal from the order of the Commonwealth Court, dated December 24, 2003, reversing the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Snyder County, dated November 26, 2003 SUBMITTED: February 17, 2004 DISSENTING OPINION MR. JUSTICE EAKIN Decided: March 26, 2004 The majority has taken the plain, lucid, unambiguous phrase “the name of any person not already printed on the ballot” and used “liberal interpretation” to make it mean “the name of any person whether already printed on the ballot or not.” This is not liberal interpretation; it is judicial alchemy to which I cannot subscribe. Legislative phrases that are clear should not give rise to judicial reinterpretation, much less the pursuit of the phantasm of legislative intent. When the legislature speaks clearly, as here, it matters not what a court wishes to divine as their collective intent, whether in pursuit of a sympathetic result or not. It is an invasion of the legislative prerogative to transmogrify clear and unambiguous words into an opposite result. Accordingly, I must dissent.