The Philadelphia Bar Association’s Judicial Commission has been faulted in some quarters for a lack of influence on judicial races and in other quarters for perceived unfairness in the recommendations the commission makes over who should be elected or retained as a judge.
But despite any limitations to the judicial commission’s sway in judicial elections, a volunteer bar association task force charged with reviewing the commission’s functions has concluded that the commission has an important role to play in the elective, political process out of which the city’s judges are selected.
