In the two decades since The Legal Intelligencer marked its 150th anniversary, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has navigated the rapids of controversy among them the criminal convictions of two justices and a botched pay raise that exacted a fearsome political toll. It has also enjoyed breakthrough triumphs, like the taming of case backlog in Philadelphia, the imposition of new controls on medical malpractice suits controls that may have staved off efforts to impose a damages cap as well as opening a new administrative home for the state court system.
Those triumphs and controversies made the biggest headlines, but I am drawn to the late Chief Justice Ralph Cappy’s view: The heart of the justices’ work is to function as a "teaching court," directing bench and bar in the development of the common law, statutory interpretation and the state constitution.
