holding legislative acts requiring counties to fund the local court system to be unconstitutional
How later courts described this case
- holding legislative acts requiring counties to fund the local court system to be unconstitutional
- "[I]f court funding is permitted to continue in the hands of local political authorities it is likely to produce nothing but suspicion or perception of bias and favoritism.”
- “The majority ignores the fact that the county’s taxing power is not separate and independent of the state’s taxing power. Rather, the authority to tax is a power of the state which is delegated by the state to the counties to be exercised by them in accordance with the terms of that delegation.”
- invalidating statutory scheme requiring counties to fund respective court systems in unified judiciary
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
PAPADAKOS, Justice, dissenting.
I believe that in the spirit of comity among equal branches of government that the Applications of the Governor and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should be granted and we should permit them to argue their positions (in Harrisburg) vis-a-vis the Constitutional argument that they provide full funding for the entire unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania.
NIX, C.J., and McDERMOTT, J., join this dissent.