In what may be a landmark opinion, the Commonwealth Court overturned a Bucks County judge’s decision to dismiss a case brought by some Republican committee members over how the county GOP is governed.
The appeals court sent the case back to the Common Pleas Court to be litigated.
However, the case may have a broad, statewide precedent unless the state Supreme Court overturns it.
The underlying lawsuit was filed in August 2023 by Hatfield Republican Committeeman Barry Casper and about 50 other local committee members, who alleged that Bucks County did not have proper bylaws in place for a June 20 election. In that election, Chair Pat Poprik was reelected and Casper lost.
Casper contended that some of Poprik’s support came via proxy and that those votes should not have been allowed because the rules did not specify the procedure for proxy votes.
“Kudos to the plaintiff’s attorneys,” said Casper. “The court’s decision vindicates the conservative insurgency in Bucks County. It’s uncharted water at this point. It’s time to adopt new bylaws and unite. The focus is the election of Republican candidates.”
The state GOP and Bucks County committee argued that the courts did not have jurisdiction in the case because of the First Amendment right of association that “encompasses a political party’s decisions about the identity of and process for electing its leaders.”
But the aggrieved committee members said the county GOP is either a nonprofit corporation or a nonprofit association, both of which are subject to state law.
The Commonwealth Court considered “the single question of whether a political party must conduct membership votes in compliance with the statutes that govern all Pennsylvania nonprofit organizations.”
The appellate judges held the trial court erred when it ruled that the First Amendment insulated the county committee “in terms of nonprofit corporation law or the nonprofit association law.”
The Commonwealth judges also agreed with the committee members that bylaws must be properly adopted, signed and filed. And if proxy voting procedures are not properly written in the bylaws, they cannot be used.
Andrew Teitelman, attorney for the committee members, said this is now state law and applies to political party committees in all 67 counties.
“The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has taken a monumental step in a case of first impression by making it clear that political associations are not above the law,” said Teitelman. “The key finding from the arguments made by me and Josh Prince last June is that the Bucks County Republican Committee can no longer use proxy voting for its internal votes. This will directly affect how they conduct their reorganization elections this June.
“The longer-term ramification of this case is that all political associations will need to make sure they follow the Pennsylvania association and election laws by having proper bylaws. While we hope that the BCRC and PAGOP will allow this matter to proceed in the Bucks County courts, they may take a further appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. But while such an appeal is pending, the opinion delivered on Sept. 16, 2025, is the law.”
The Bucks County GOP sent this statement: “We understand that some misinformation has been circulated regarding the lawsuit over our 50-year-old bylaws. If you recall, the Bucks County Court threw out the case based on prior Supreme Court cases that say the Court does not have jurisdiction over political parties’ governance. The appeals court recently found that the Bucks County Court should have heard the case and not dismissed it.
“If the case comes back to the Bucks County Court, the Court will have to determine if our bylaws are valid. There has been no finding that the bylaws are not valid nor was there any finding that the officers of the Bucks GOP were not properly elected. We would prefer to spend our time and energies electing Republicans; however, if necessary, we are prepared to prove that our bylaws, which have been in existence for more than 50 years, are valid.”