In mid-January, Lynn Marks sat in a Harrisburg courtroom, keeping an eye on the judiciary.
She was observing a pretrial conference in the disciplinary case of former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin, who would eventually retire from the bench amid an email scandal that has yet to conclude. She watched the parties discuss the admissibility of certain offensive messages and, afterward, spoke about the extended period of turbulence the state’s courts were experiencing. But, as always, she expressed optimism about the possibility of a brighter future, one free of ethical quagmires and moral missteps, one in which the court system’s many branches and the judges at its roots would ensure justice for all.
