Court Opinion

ID: 9719597
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:56:54.196234+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:08.390883
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Judge Rogers :
I respectfully dissent. Article Y, Section 16(a) of the Pennsylvania Constitution provides that judges shall be compensated as provided by law. This provision has been definitively interpreted to mean that judges must be paid adequate compensation. Glancey v. Casey, 447 Pa. 77, 288 A.2d 812 (1972). I do not understand the court here to hold that this record does not establish that the petitioners are presently receiving less than adequate compensation. Nor would such a holding be possible. The report of the Commonwealth Compensation Commission dated January 30, 1979, made after the exhaustive study required by the statute which established the Commission, declares that the petitioners are inadequately compensated. Thai declaration and the findings on which it is based stand unrebutted on this record. It inexorably follows that the petitioners’ constitutional right to adequate compensation, having been denied by the Legislature, must be vindicated by the judiciary.
I do not read Glancey v. Casey, supra, as declaring that Article Y, Section 16(a) requires as a condition to relief from demonstrated inadequate compensation that the judg’es prove that the independence or efficiency of the judicial system has been destroyed. The *576language of Glancey v. Casey depended on by the court here must be read in the context of the facts of that case. The judges there sought to recover money on account of inadequate compensation provided for past services; no complaint was made as to the adequacy of current salaries. It seems to me that the effectiveness of Article V, Section 16(a) no more depends on proof that the judiciary system is in fact ineffective or subservient than that the restraints of the First Amendment apply only after proof that the government has already closed the churches, destroyed the presses and dispersed peaceable assemblies of the people. Article Y, Section 16(a) proscribes inadequate compensation, not compensation so inadequate that judges are presently incompetent or in thrall to the Legislature.
I would enter judgment for the petitioners and I would direct the respondents respectively to requisition and to pay the petitioners from the date of the court’s order forward the amount of compensation reported by the Commonwealth Compensation Commission.