Pennsylvania
Pa. Commonwealth Court election results: Democrat Matt Wolf beats Republican Megan Martin

This story originally appeared on Spotlight PA.
Democrat Matt Wolf, a Philadelphia municipal judge, will fill an open seat on Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court.
The Associated Press called the race at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Unofficial results show Wolf with 53% of the vote and Republican Megan Martin, a former legislative official, with 47%.
Commonwealth Court is the first stop for civil actions brought against state and local governments and regulatory agencies. It regularly hears high-profile cases on important political issues such as election law, redistricting, and abortion.
Its rulings — such as a 2020 order that temporarily paused the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results — can be reviewed and overturned by the state Supreme Court.
Not every Commonwealth Court ruling is appealed or taken up by the high court, and those decisions have an enormous impact on politics and policy in the state. For example, the court earlier this year found Pennsylvania’s public school funding system to be unconstitutionally inequitable and ordered the legislature to reform it.
The outcome of Tuesday’s election does not change partisan control of the court. Republicans have a 5-3 edge on the 9-member bench, which typically hears cases in 3-member panels. The vacancy on the Nov. 7 ballot was created when Judge Kevin Brobson was elected to the state Supreme Court.
Wolf currently sits on the Philadelphia Municipal Court, where he has served as a judge since 2017.
Before his election, Wolf worked as a trial attorney for 25 years at various firms, primarily in New Jersey, including his father’s practice and his own. He also served in the Army Reserves as a legal officer and is an active member of the Pennsylvania National Guard.
Wolf decried judicial activism in a candidate forum earlier this year, calling it “not productive.”
“I don’t believe that it is productive to be activist at all and change things for the sake of a political reason,” Wolf said.
His Republican opponent, Martin, is a Cumberland County resident, Widener University law school graduate, and the former parliamentarian of the state Senate. In that role, she was charged with advising the Pennsylvania Senate’s presiding officer on how to run floor proceedings in accordance with the state constitution, law, precedent, and chamber rules.
The state bar association recommended Martin. She has compared her judicial philosophy to that of Brobson and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
“I am a strict constructionist,” she wrote in response to a survey by the Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform, a nonprofit that primarily advocates for friendlier laws for the health care industry and other business interests in civil cases. “I am a textualist and an originalist; I do not believe the constitution is a ‘living document.’”
Martin’s campaign outspent Wolf’s in the lead-up to the general election. Martin’s campaign has spent $556,000 since May, while Wolf’s campaign has spent $110,000, according to a Spotlight PA analysis of campaign finance records.
State appellate court judges serve 10-year terms. They earn subsequent terms through nonpartisan retention elections, in which voters are asked to approve or reject an additional 10-year term. Judges rarely lose these retention elections, which means that once on the bench, they often stay for decades. They must retire by age 75.

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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania ranks third for police misconduct settlement cases

Perry’s story may help understand some of the findings of a Whitley Law Firm study, originating in North Carolina, that analyzed police misconduct settlement figures nationwide, documenting patterns and covering numerous jurisdictions.
According to the study, Pennsylvania has paid more than $59 million total for four police misconduct settlements, from 2010 to 2014, ranking the commonwealth third-highest (an average of $14.8 million per settlement) in the nation for large payout amounts.
New York leads the nation in settlement costs, averaging $73 million per case and ultimately exceeding $1.1 billion in total settlements.
A closer look at Philadelphia
In Philadelphia, the study showed the city paid $54 million for police misconduct cases settled between 2010 and 2014.
The family of Walter Wallace Jr. received a $2.5 million settlement in 2021, a year after Wallace was fatally shot by police while experiencing a mental health crisis near his home in Cobbs Creek.
However, Wallace family attorney Shaka Johnson called the payment “cheap” in some respects, noting that the family has the right to use the funds to honor Walter’s memory. His death, which occurred months after the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, further fueled demands for police reform. Floyd’s death in May 2020 sparked nationwide protests and calls for accountability.
Similarly, Wallace’s killing deeply affected Philadelphia residents, prompting demands for changes in law enforcement policies, training and accountability measures.
The Whitley study underscores the steep costs of misconduct settlements and the systemic issues they expose. The report highlighted the need for preventative issues, such as improved policies and police training, to reduce wrongful deaths.
“Every dollar spent on a misconduct settlement is a dollar that could have been invested in community resources, safety initiatives, and police training,” the report states. “It’s critical that we work to ensure these settlements become rare, not routine.”
The cases of Wallace and Floyd stand as stark reminders of the urgent need for systemic reforms to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
Michael Collins, senior director of state and local policy for social justice nonprofit Color of Change, blames the high number of misconduct payment settlements on strong police unions in this country.
“The Fraternal Order of Police, which acts to protect indefensible cop behavior, they will negotiate as part of the contract ways in which account is very watered down,” Collins told WHYY News in an interview. “They will, you know, protect officers who are tied to, like, white supremacists. They will protect officers who have previously engaged in misconduct, they will erect obstacles that do not occur for investigations into regular members of the public.”
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