Thread by @Taniel

As Pennsylvania votes today, keep an eye on judicial races. Way down-ballot, but a lot is happening there.

And I'm very happy to be working somewhere where we get to take judges' powers seriously — and cover them accordingly. A brief thread on what that's looked like. ↓ ↓

1️⃣ In Pittsburgh/Allegheny County, local activists have recruited a "Slate of Eight" to run for the Court of Common Pleas on promises to curb evictions and mass incarceration. This has lit up usually quiet elections.

@SamMellins wrote: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…

2️⃣ One of those candidates has already been a judge! Mik Pappas (fueled by a local DSA endorsement) won another sort of judgeship in 2017. @Sentinel_Vaughn shows here how his record of decision-making is a window into the huge discretion judges have: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…

3️⃣ Across the state, in Philly, progressives groups like
@reclaimphila are hoping to push the bench to the left in today's elections. (Part of the subtext is, this would give Krasner more allies if he wins re-election.) @mauraewing reports: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…

4️⃣ At the end of the day, the obstacles to even having more conversation about this is that... the structure of local courts AND the power of judges is so obscure.

So this Maria Hawilo explainer on how... this all even works in Pennsylvania is essential: theappeal.org/the-lab/explai…

As always, a lot of credit to the 🔥 team that worked on these, incl. @MaleciaWalker, @EthanSCorey, @annafsimonton, @KyleCBarry, & Molly Green. It's esp. fun to work on these with them in that covering local judges as a regular beat feels like building a new language at times.