DV Journal

Environmental progressives encountered a Pennsylvania-sized setback this week after the Democrat candidate for attorney general said he wouldn’t support unilateral legal action against oil and gas companies.

“That is not a direction I am looking to go,” said Eugene DePasquale during a PA Chamber of Business and Industry candidate forum.

Anti-fossil-fuel activists have been filing lawsuits in state and local governments hoping to use nuisance ordinances and other local laws to punish global energy companies over global warming. The argument is that selling oil or natural gas in Belgium, Bangledesh or Belize results in damage in Bucks County, Pa.

And indeed, eight months ago, Bucks County commissioners authorized a lawsuit against the world’s largest oil producers over climate change.

“We’re already seeing the human and financial tolls of climate change beginning to mount, and if the oil companies’ own data is to be believed, the trend will continue,” Democrat Commission Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia said at the time.

She portrayed the suit as a way to fund public works projects like retrofitting county-owned buildings to withstand powerful storms. “All of which will put us in the best possible position to weather what is certain to come,” asserted Ellis-Marseglia.

The lawsuit encountered issues almost immediately.

Barely a week after Bucks County announced the plan, Republican Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo said he was backing out. DiGirolamo gave no reason for the change of heart.

Oil companies fought back.

Court documents filed over the summer accused Bucks County commissioners of failing to advertise and vote at a public meeting on the suit. The county was also accused of attempting an end-around previous federal court rulings by filing suit in Pennsylvania court.

“[Bucks County] seeks to impose liability based on the theory that [oil companies] caused – through alleged deception and failure to warn consumers – emissions to enter the worldwide atmosphere at a level that [commissioners believe] to be injurious,” wrote Frederick Santarelli, the attorney for Chevron Corporation.

He added federal and state courts have said “state law cannot be used to obtain relief” for climate change. That included Delaware and Maryland courts that dismissed suits because they went beyond state law.

Chevron and other energy corporations have said the suits aren’t legal because they seek to redress grievances made by interstate and worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. They argue Bucks County wants to use Pennsylvania law against alleged violations in China and Africa – locations that are hundreds of thousands of miles away from the Keystone State. That can’t happen because federal jurisdiction trumps the states, specifically the Clean Air Act.

“[Bucks County wants the court] to impose liability and damages on a selected group of energy companies under Pennsylvania law because of their – and many others’ – global production, promotion, and distribution of those lawful products,” wrote Santarelli.

At the same time, Santarelli suggested the Bucks County government ignored the benefits of oil and gas. He pointed to the use of oil and gas in not only powering homes, but also vehicles so people can go to and from work. That’s not allowed by Pennsylvania or federal law.

Pennsylvania law may not allow so-called nuisance suits, where companies are targeted for the actions of third parties. The Commonwealth Court ruled in 2007 that the ‘nuisance’ term covers “the unreasonable use by one person” of personal or real property. Santarelli argued there’s a clear boundary between nuisance and product liability that “must be respected” to avoid a flood of liability suits.

Energy advocates argue Bucks County’s suit ignored the fact American carbon emissions have plummeted since 2005 largely due to the pivot to natural gas to fuel power plants. Carbon emissions are down 15 percent, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

Kurt Knaus with the Pennsylvania Alliance for Energy told DVJournal there’s no evidence the lawsuits will do anything but line the pockets of out-of-state attorneys.

“Pennsylvanians want energy development that is safe and responsible, while preserving jobs and keeping prices affordable. The more our leaders embrace these facts and smart policy, the better off Pennsylvania residents and businesses will be,” he said.

Now, Democratic attorney general candidate DePasquale describes these anti-fossil-fuel efforts as a policy initiative, indicating it should be left to the Governor’s Office, the General Assembly, or Congress to decide.

More significantly, DePasquale endorsed an all-of-the-above strategy combining renewable and traditional energy sources to power the grid and fight climate change. “Simply punishing companies [for oil and gas] isn’t going to get us there,” he said.

After a hearing on Friday, Delaware County Common Pleas Judge John J. Whelan dismissed a lawsuit over voting machines brought by a Republican congressional candidate and others.

Alfeia Goodwin is challenging three-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon.

“The judge’s decision was anticipated, and we’re appealing,” Goodwin told DVJournal.

The suit claimed the 18 Hart Verity voting machines in question should be quarantined and the FBI should be called in to investigate who installed the rogue software, the lawsuit says. Also, the county’s other 838 machines should be tested to see if they have the same issues.

Goodwin’s co-plaintiff, Robert Mancini, a computer cyber-security expert, said MathNET Numerics Dll, a program not authorized by state or federal elections officials, was found on the machines. He warned the county council about the MathNET program at its April 17 meeting before the state primary.  The county took no action to remove it, he said.

The county welcomed the court’s decision, according to a press release.

“The court’s ruling, issued after a thorough five-hour hearing, confirmed that the Bureau of Elections and Voting Machine Warehouse had fully complied with regulations and conducted additional testing that exceeded state requirements,” county officials said.

At the close of the hearing, Whelan said the county’s performance of testing beyond what the state requires weighed in the ruling. He stated the evidence suggests Delaware County voters should feel confident in their election systems.

“This decision confirms what we have said all along: our voting equipment is secure, reliable, and compliant with both federal and state standards,” said Delaware County Elections Director Jim Allen. “The thoroughness of our Logic and Accuracy testing demonstrates our commitment to fair elections. We encourage voters to participate in the upcoming election with full confidence that every vote will be counted accurately and transparently.”

He called the claims made in the lawsuit “baseless.”

“The county’s Logic and Accuracy testing—a vital component of election preparation—ensures that all voting machines function correctly and match the certified software. In addition to pre-election testing, the county conducts a test to verify that the software in use perfectly matches the software that was certified by the federal government. The election offices also perform post-election audits and recounts, including hand recounts, to further verify the accuracy and reliability of election results.

The lawsuit sought emergency relief, claiming improper software had been installed on the county’s voting machines. However, the plaintiffs failed to provide evidence of these claims, county officials said.

Mancini said, “Judge Whelan does not understand that software not verified by the EAC is not allowed on Electronic Voting Systems. Defendant Delaware County successfully conflated the difference between loading software and validating that the software matches the original build that was tested in an accredited lab by the Election Assistance Commission.

“The judge ruled that non-technical people can make a technical decision,” he added. “Not a single witness knew what the output a ‘trusted build validation’ or what a hash code is ! The judge allowed software that has not been tested, verified and validated on the scanner, a software package that is designed specifically to manipulate date because it was too much work to count the ballot by hand.”

(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty)

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, also the Democrats’ nominee for auditor general in this November’s election, was sued in January by Drexel University for more than $36,000 in unpaid tuition and late fees, according to court documents.

A university ledger for Kenyatta’s account filed as an exhibit in the case shows the Philly-based politician began accruing a balance with Drexel in the spring of 2014, enrolling in the Graduate College of Arts and Sciences.

Kenyatta made several payments through much of 2014, but by November and December that year, the university began regularly assessing late payment fees against him that continued into 2017. He enrolled for more classes in 2019, but by 2021 the late payment fees began again — this time costing about $300 each month for 15 consecutive months.

“Although demand [for payment] therefore has been made repeatedly, the Defendant has failed to pay the balance due,” the filing says. The filing asks for the balance of $36,139, another $500 for attorney fees incurred thus far, while leaving the door open for more attorney fees plus interest.

A spokesperson for Kenyatta brushed the lawsuit aside, suggesting there was nothing unusual.

“Like millions of Americans, Rep. Kenyatta carries debt from pursuing higher education. This matter is no longer pending and was settled between the parties in 2024,” said spokesperson Mike Mikus.

Mikus provided a screenshot from February demonstrating a settlement between Kenyatta and Drexel. The screenshot is a text from Kenyatta’s attorney, Wade Albert, and shows a settlement amount of $37,585.

As a state legislator, Kenyatta earns a salary of $106,422 per year, plus an allowance of $185 each day for expenses.

Even with the outstanding balance, Drexel featured Kenyatta in an “alumni spotlight” article.

“On the value of his graduate education, Kenyatta remarks, ‘Everything I learned in the program enhanced my skills as a leader and a communicator to constituents. You have to be clear and concise in your message. You have to communicate in an accessible manner. You have to know what you’re talking about,’” the profile said.

The Philly Democrat was ensnared in controversy earlier this year before the primary election. While doing door-to-door campaigning, a woman’s in-home security camera recorded Kenyatta saying one of his Democratic opponents “don’t like Black people.”

“There’s the guy, Mark Pinsley, who I told you don’t like Black people,” Kenyatta said. “He’s still running so we’ll see if he can get on the ballot. I have no idea. He’s from the Lehigh Valley.”

Kenyatta will face off in November against Republican incumbent Tim DeFoor to be Pennsylvania’s “chief fiscal watchdog.”

What is life like for Jewish students on college campuses in the Philadelphia suburbs?

Barak Mendelsohn, a professor of political science at Haverford College, posted a message to X from a Jewish student who was considering coming to Haverford this fall but decided not to.

“First, [I] had some great conversations with other students, but when they hear that I went to Jewish Day School and am a Jew, I get asked almost immediately if I support Israel, and if I’m Zionist, I either get blocked or ridiculed by other Haverford students who I barely even know,” the student wrote to Mendelsohn, to partly explain the decision.

Mendelsohn believes that person is one of many Jewish students who have chosen not to attend the small but prestigious college founded by Quakers in 1833.

Because it’s a small college rather than a larger university, students can’t easily avoid others who harass them, Mendelsohn said.

“It’s a pressure cooker [for the Jewish students],” Mendelsohn told DVJournal. “The social pressures on students here are just tremendous. And to hear stories from students, where people they thought were their friends, telling them that because they are Zionist, which means believing, just believing, in Israel’s right to exist, is a huge part of our identity…[they say] ‘I will not be your friend. We cannot be in connection. You got to reject that part of your identity.’ Now imagine if that kind of pressure on gays [or] students of color. However, that [antisemitism] seems to be completely socially acceptable among the students.”

“And my heart just bleeds for them because I can’t protect them,” said Mendelsohn.

The college administration “seems content on having fewer and fewer” Jewish students.  It’s because of their notion of the world, their DEI [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion] ideology that divides everyone into oppressors and oppressed, that puts Jews inherently as the White oppressors.”

In May, the Deborah Project, a public interest law firm, sued Haverford College in federal court on behalf of “Jews at Haverford,” alleging civil rights violations against Jewish students.

“Haverford College has repeatedly, officially, refused to condemn Hamas for the atrocities it committed against Jews on Oct. 7, 2023, even though the impact of those atrocities on Jewish students at Haverford was surely as brutal as the impact on students of color when a Black man was killed by the Philadelphia police. Haverford College made no public statement condemning the brutal violence committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, when over a thousand Jews were murdered, mutilated, burned alive and raped to death, when hundreds were taken hostage, all in explicit and proudly announced violation of international law, videotaped by the perpetrators themselves, so there could be no doubt as to whether these atrocities occurred, or who committed them,” the suit said.

“Instead, Haverford Dean McKnight issued a public statement on Oct. 9. That statement took no moral stance on Hamas’s actions. Haverford College instead compared the butchery of Jews in Israel by a known terrorist group committed to eradicating the Jewish State and slaughtering all the Jews within it to a ‘hurricane’ or other natural disaster—thereby completely ignoring and refusing to take a position on, the gross immorality of what was done, by Hamas terrorists in less than two days to these hundreds of Jews. When a Jewish student leader complained, Dean [John] McKnight responded that, ‘I got emails from all different individuals; I can’t make everyone happy.’”

Pro-Palestinian students have been very active on campus, including holding an ‘Israel Apartheid Month’ of events in March.

Chris Mills, a spokesman for Haverford said the college does  not comment on ongoing litigation. But lawyers for the college filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on July 15. The motion claims the plaintiff’s allegations are “untethered to fact” and that the college is “deeply committed to opposing antisemitism and all forms of hate, both on and off campus.”

Mendelsohn, who emigrated from Israel 20 years ago, said he’s experienced hostility as a Jewish professor at Haverford.

“Until Oct. 7, I was a scholar and an educator,” said Mendelsohn, an expert on terrorism and Middle East security issues who has taught at Haverford for 17 years. “I’m suddenly back to being a Jew from Israel, not even an American Jew. And that’s horrible. It was a huge shock.”

“And to see our Jewish students suffering, being isolated and ostracized and ignored is just heartbreaking,” said Mendelsohn.

A math professor who has been “regularly spewing antisemitic rhetoric that celebrated Oct. 7” was given an award from the student body. That was “sticking a finger in the eyes of the Jewish community,” Mendelsohn said.  The administration could disavow responsibility because the award came from the students, he said.

“It’s just despicable what we’re experiencing,” said Mendelsohn.

Mills said, “We are saddened to learn that an incoming first-year Haverford student plans to withdraw from our Class of 2028. Everyone at Haverford College is a welcome member of our community and deserves to feel so. That principle is core to our values of trust, concern, and respect. So is the principle of respecting the right to free expression; however, that comes with limits.

“Specifically, hateful or discriminatory expression is not tolerated. We are investigating this matter and have invited the student to share the posts with us so we can learn more. The outcome of our investigation will determine next steps, including disciplinary action if appropriate. Our Office of Student Life is in contact with this student to fully understand the matter and to provide support,” he said.

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A federal judge denied a request for an injunction against the University of Pennsylvania that would have prevented Penn from giving Congress information about a Palestinian literary festival held at the university.

A group of professors and students called Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine sued Penn to stop it from complying with a request for documents from a U.S. House of Representatives committee. Lawyers for Penn filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit for lack of standing.

Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg, chief judge for the Southeastern District of Pennsylvania, dismissed the group’s lawsuit on June 24.

Lead plaintiffs Huda Fakhreddine, a professor of Arabic literature who organized the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, and Eve Troutt Powell, who teaches Middle Eastern history,  did not respond to requests for comment.

Penn spokesman Ron Ozio said the university does not comment on litigation.

Jewish leaders had asked Penn to distance itself from the Palestine Writes Festival, which began Sept. 22, 2023, and overlapped Yom Kippur. It was held near Hillel, where Jewish students would worship. They also objected to listed speakers, some of whom were known antisemites, including Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame, who supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and compared Israel to Nazi Germany. Another presenter listed was Marc Lamont Hill, who was fired from CNN after using the phrase “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” often viewed as a call for the destruction of Israel and the Jews who live there.

The festival preceded the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the ensuing protests at Penn that culminated with a tent encampment.

Former Penn President Liz Magill testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee, and her remarks saying calls for Jewish genocide are allowed “in context” led to her eventual resignation.

In his opinion, Goldberg noted the House committee sent Penn a letter expressing “grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of Penn’s response to antisemitism on its campus.”

“The letter consists of a narrative of events and a document request. It mentions the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, which it states included ‘antisemitic speakers,’ and criticizes Fakhreddine by name for her statements about Israel.”

Part of the House request regarded “disciplinary … processes,” Palestine Writes Literature Festival, and various Penn-affiliated organizations and events. The letter is not a subpoena and does not legally compel Penn to produce documents. Nonetheless, Penn has indicated it will honor the Committee’s request.”

Further, the plaintiffs argued that if Penn gives the documents to the House committee, “it will “threaten” them with “a renewed and continued barrage of death and rape threats and hate speech” and could expose “members of [Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine] who have not previously been doxxed.”

Goldberg added, “Plaintiffs thus seek an order prohibiting Penn from complying with the House Committee’s request. The plaintiffs’ complaint does not identify the documents or information they believe Penn will produce. In particular, plaintiffs do not allege whether documents Penn plans to produce would include their personal contact information such as home addresses.”

The judge found the plaintiffs did not have standing because the documents the House requested were not “defamatory” and did not have private details like their home address.

“The fact that plaintiffs were harassed before is not enough; plaintiffs need to show that Penn’s documents would contribute to that harassment,” the judge wrote.

However, he said he would allow them to refile their case if they can “in good faith” allege facts supporting their standing or right to file it.

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An election integrity nonprofit has teamed up with some Delaware Valley residents in a federal lawsuit targeting Pennsylvania’s Department of State over what they claim is a failure to meet the minimum standards for a fair election in 2o22.

Diane Houser of Downingtown, Ruth Moton of Upper Chichester, and Dean Dreibelbis of Glen Mills joined the group United Sovereign Americans, which claims state and federal officials dropped the ball in the election that year.

The plaintiffs claim the state failed to properly conduct the 2022 election and that officials certified the results “despite analysis showing the election results were per se unreliable on account of apparent error rates exceeding those the law permits before any federal election becomes unreliable.” And their attorney, Bruce L. Castor Jr., says legal action is the only remedy.

“Only a court has the power to require respondents to act to bring the 2024 (and subsequent) federal elections in Pennsylvania into conformity with the minimum standards set by Congress,” Castor said. His lawsuit argues that “systemic issues which occurred in the 2022 combined federal and state election in Pennsylvania will continue uncorrected in 2024, 2026, 2028, etc. absent intervention by this court.”

The lawsuit claims election officials’ actions in 2022 did not meet minimum federal standards in the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). It asks the court to intervene to ensure that only properly registered voters cast ballots in federal and state elections for 2024.

It also asks the court to make sure that only properly cast votes are counted and that all voting systems are compliant “with all critical infrastructure requirements and risk assessments are completed within the actual use context, thereby assuring every ballot is correctly and uniformly processed, as well as accurately tabulated and secured in combined federal and Pennsylvania elections beginning in 2024.”

Many Americans remain concerned about whether elections are being conducted fairly.

A January survey by the University of South Florida found only 24 percent of Republicans believe their vote will be properly counted this year, compared to 58 percent of Democrats. Some 37 percent of Republicans are somewhat confident, 24 percent are not very confident, and 16 percent at not at all confident.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, who was in Newtown, Pa. for a ballot integrity event on Tuesday, said it’s a good idea to make sure the voter rolls are accurate.

“We want the [voter] rolls to be as clean as they possibly can be,” said Whatley. “Look, we don’t want people who should not be voting casting votes, like people who have passed away or people who have moved. You obviously want to make sure you get them off the rolls. We want to make sure the rolls are as accurate as possible. And we have filed lawsuits across the country to get other states to do that and we certainly support that in Pennsylvania.”

Contributing to the problem is the state of the voter rolls, that contained “hundreds of thousands of potential errors at the time of the 2022 general election,” the suit said. They included many duplicate registrations, voters with invalid or illogical voter history, voters placed in inactive statuses on questionable authority, backdated registrations, registrations with a modified date prior to registration, invalid or illogical registration dates, age discrepant registrants, and registrants with questionable addresses.”

“The ability to ‘cast and count votes’ begins with establishing eligibility and registering only qualified citizens into voter registration databases, thus assuring that all ballots granted, cast, and counted, are lawful,” the suit said.

United Sovereign Americans studied data from the 2022 Pennsylvania general election and found “hundreds of thousands of voter registration apparent errors,” the suit contends. Of the votes cast in 2022, they found a total of 1,198,598 evident voting violations, and 1,089,750 unique votes impacted by apparent voting violations.”

The plaintiffs ask the court to compel the state to correct the apparent errors evident from the 2022 elections data and prevent those same or similar ministerial errors from recurring during the Pennsylvania 2024 general election.

Department of State Press Secretary Matt Heckel  called the suit “frivolous.”

And “without any supporting facts or viable legal theories, a panoply of conspiracy claims advanced by litigants who have repeatedly filed baseless actions rejected by the courts. Undeterred, these litigants and their counsel continue to waste taxpayer money. The department will respond accordingly,” said Heckel.

The U.S. Attorney General’s Office, also a defendant, declined to comment.  The state Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

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Former Yeadon Police Chief Anthony “Chachi” Paparo settled a reverse discrimination case with the borough for $2.5 million.

Paparo, 60, claimed in his lawsuit that former Council President Sharon Council-Harris, former Vice President Learin Johnson, and former council members Tomeka Jones-Waters and Carlette Brooks decided to get rid of him because Paparo is White and the town is 90 percent Black.

Paparo says he believes he could have been awarded more if the case had gone to trial, but he decided to settle because he didn’t want to bankrupt the small borough and harm the residents, of whom he remains very fond.

“I didn’t want to be at the point where we went to court and Yeadon got hit with a verdict, like the Starbucks thing, $25 million and then Yeadon doesn’t exist anymore,” Paparo told DVJournal.

In June 2023, a jury ordered Starbucks to pay $25 million to a Philadelphia store manager who claimed she was fired because she was White.

He also appreciated other council members who came forward in depositions and “talked about what these four (council members) were doing when they could have easily remained mute. But instead, they had the courage to come forward and say, ‘Hey, you know what? They’re firing this guy because he’s a White guy.’ And that’s one of the things I’ll never forget.”

Also, in February 2022, more than 1,000 residents signed a petition supporting Paparo. They opposed him “being targeted by the individual defendants because of the color of his skin,” Judge Michael M. Baylson wrote in his ruling to deny the borough’s motion to dismiss the case.

According to court records, some of the council members who wanted Paparo gone mentioned his race to other council members and that they wanted to replace him with a Black chief. They had also approached some Black officers to see if they’d be interested in the chief’s job. Ironically, the new chief, whom the council hired after sacking Paparo, was White.

Detractors pointed to a $287,000 settlement with the police union over part-time officers. Paparo used the part-timers to supplement the force during the COVID-19 epidemic and civil unrest in 2020.

On Feb. 27, 2022, Yeadon Council fired Paparo by a 4-3 vote. Council Member Liana Roadcloud said then that the vote was “about race. This is not about money.”

Paparo said he was deeply wounded by the damage to his reputation. The most difficult thing has been his inability to find another police job since Yeadon Council terminated him. He noted borough officials circulated a “Fast Facts” flyer about him to every residence in town and posted it online.

“For me, it wasn’t about the money. It was about getting my reputation back. I worked hard to build my career,” said Paparo.

Paparo said he applied for job after job without any luck. He believes potential employers would look him up online and read Yeadon’s allegations of mismanagement.

“To not even be considered for interviews when I’m applying is very, very hard to comprehend and a hard pill to swallow,” said Paparo. Although Paparo lives in Chester County, he applied for some 150 law enforcement jobs, looking in other states, as far away as South Carolina.

“It was completely about race,” Paparo said. “They got caught and had to come up with something, so they went back two years to find an FOP grievance that had nothing to do with what was going on. If it wasn’t for the courage of (the council members who supported him) and the community, I could have been just railroaded.”

Under the settlement agreement, Yeadon and the other defendants did not admit wrongdoing. The Yeadon Borough manager and solicitor did not respond to requests for comment. Lawyer Robert DiDomenicis, who represented the council member defendants, declined to comment.

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Gov. Josh Shapiro’s executive action turning Pennsylvania’s “motor voter” system from “opt in” to “opt out” will stand, thanks to the plaintiffs’ lack of standing.

That was the finding of U.S. District Judge Jennifer P. Wilson on Tuesday when she rejected a lawsuit by 25 state legislators claiming Shapiro’s changes to the state’s voter registration process are unconstitutional.

Wilson ruled the plaintiffs had not “alleged any individualized and particularized harm.” Therefore, she ruled they “do not have standing” to pursue the lawsuit.

Last fall, Shapiro ordered PennDOT to automatically register people when they received their driver’s licenses or state identification cards unless they opt out of the process. The lawsuit, led by Rep.  Dawn Keefer (R-York) claimed that was unconstitutional because it usurped the authority of the state legislature.

The suit also claimed that when President Joe Biden signed an executive order in March 2021 requiring all federal agencies to develop plans to increase voter registration, his action was also unconstitutional.

Keefer, who is running for the state Senate, did not have an immediate comment on the ruling. The plaintiffs were members of the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus and other conservative lawmakers.

Under Shapiro’s new system, people can opt out of getting their voter registration. Under the previous system, they had to opt in to register at Department of Motor Vehicle centers.

Previously, House Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) said a new voting registration system should be created by legislation rather than by an executive order from the governor.

And others have also expressed concern with the change.

“The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has admitted to registering foreign nationals to vote for nearly two decades,” J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, previously told DVJournal. “They continue to fight to conceal the full extent of how many foreigners registered to vote through the DMV process. This new automatic voter registration program will crank in more errors to the voter rolls.”

Shapiro took a victory lap Tuesday.

“In 2020, I defeated Donald Trump and his conspiracy theorist allies in court more than 40 times to defend Pennsylvanians’ votes and protect access to the ballot box,” Shapiro said. “Today, we’ve done it again by getting their frivolous effort to stop automatic voter registration in our commonwealth dismissed. Automatic voter registration is safe, secure, efficient, and entirely within my administration’s authority.”

“As governor, I will always remain focused on protecting our democracy and ensuring our elections are free, fair, safe, and secure. Let today’s ruling be another reminder that taking legal advice from Donald Trump is never a winning strategy,” Shapiro said.

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The Bucks County commissioners announced Monday they are suing some of the world’s largest global oil producers over the local effects of climate change in Bensalem and Yardley.

The lawsuit, filed in Common Pleas Court against BP, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute, claims they knew their product was causing climate change and failed to warn the public. Bucks County argues that those companies should be held liable for the local impacts of warmer temperatures.

“In recent years, we have experienced unprecedented weather events here in Bucks County that have repeatedly put residents and first responders in harm’s way, damaged public and private property, and placed undue strain on our infrastructure,” said Commissioner Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia (D). “We’re already seeing the human and financial tolls of climate change beginning to mount, and if the oil companies’ own data is to be believed, the trend will continue.”

Bucks County is “following the model established in suits (it) brought against PFAS manufacturers, social media giants, and opioid companies. This complaint seeks to shift the financial burden of the climate crisis from the taxpayers of Bucks County to the companies responsible for creating the crisis,” according to a statement from the county.

At least eight states and more than two dozen local governments have filed similar lawsuits.

Critics, like David N. Taylor, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, have accused the county of political posturing that is unconnected to reality.

“Suing oil and gas companies for providing an essential product that not only enables modern life but drives significant economic growth in our state is nonsensical and will result in higher costs for manufacturers, businesses, and consumers alike,” Taylor said.

“It’s unfortunate Bucks County took the bait of a copy-and-paste-lawsuit pushed by out-of-state activists and billionaire hypocrites over the well-being of Pennsylvanians.”

But commissioners from both parties supported the lawsuit.

“These companies have known since at least the 1950s that their ways of doing business were having calamitous effects on our planet, and rather than change what they were doing or raise the alarm, they lied to all of us,” said Republican Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo. “The taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for these companies and their greed.”

“This suit is our tool to recoup costs and fund public works projects like bolstering or replacing bridges, retrofitting county-owned buildings, and commencing stormwater management projects, all of which will put us in the best possible position to weather what is certain to come,” Ellis-Marseglia added.

Can a company whose product is being used in every nation in the world be held responsible for alleged local consequences from impacts on global climate?

A Delaware judge took a dim view of that legal strategy and tossed out significant parts of a similar case. On Jan. 9, Delaware Superior Court Judge Mary Miller Johnston ruled the Clean Air Act preempts Delaware’s core allegations for public nuisance, trespass, and failure to warn since it sought damages for activity resulting from out-of-state or global greenhouse gas emissions. Delaware can only proceed with claims proving alleged injuries were the cause of emissions from sources within the state. Prevailing with that claim isn’t possible in this case. The judge found that in-state Delaware emissions cannot have a material effect on the global nature of climate change.

Energy companies argue addressing climate change and public policy is a job for the federal government, not local governments.

“Addressing climate change requires a coordinated international policy response, not meritless local litigation over lawful and essential energy production,” said Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr. of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, counsel for Chevron Corporation.

Others in the energy sector accused Bucks County of hypocrisy.

“Bucks County and its elected county officials have relied on oil and natural gas for decades to meet their transportation needs and to power their once-mighty steel industrial base,” said Curt Schroder, executive director of Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform. “Yet the commissioners have filed climate change litigation for a situation they helped cause. When can we expect all county-owned vehicles to be electric or all the county buildings to be powered by renewables?

“One would expect such actions to follow immediately upon the heels of the action taken by the county leaders. Pennsylvanians already pay a hefty ‘tort tax’ that goes right into the pockets of out-of-state trial lawyers, and this lawsuit will only raise costs even higher for hard-working people across the state – all without advancing real climate solutions. Lawsuits targeting the lawful production of energy are an abuse of our state’s civil justice system and an end-run around the democratic process,” Schroder added.

And both supporters and opponents of the legislation agree that a Bucks County lawsuit isn’t going to solve the problem of climate change.

“These local lawsuits do nothing to address our real energy challenges. In fact, lawsuits like this actually undercut Pennsylvania’s role in addressing climate change. Electric sector-related emissions have plummeted in recent years as more natural gas has come online to meet our growing power demands,” said Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance.

“That has led to cleaner air across our commonwealth. The United States is reducing greenhouse gas emissions faster than any other country in the world, an achievement tied to our emergence as the world’s top natural gas producer.

“The timing of this lawsuit has little to do with environmental concerns and everything to do with concerns over the coming election,” Knaus said.

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(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty.)

Thirteen former correctional officers at the Delaware County prison on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit alleging the county improperly fired them and dozens of others shortly after the county assumed full managerial control of the prison back in April 2022.

The filing comes as prison employees have been vocal about evaporating morale and what they say are increasingly dangerous conditions at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility (GWHCF), alleging that the county’s management has been worse than the last private contractor, GEO Group.

The lawsuit’s main thrust is that the county, through its new warden Laura Williams, “systematically targeted roughly sixty-eight individuals who they terminated absent any notice hearing, charge, or due process whatsoever.”

Most of the plaintiffs were members of the Delaware County Prison Employees Independent Union, and say that the last contract in force when the prison was still under private management was still the ruling force in employment matters even though the union contract had lapsed.

They say they “possessed a legitimate claim of …continued employment” unless the county could show just cause why the officers should be fired — something they say the county did not do.

The county did not immediately return a request for comment. The county’s standard position is not to comment on pending litigation, but if a comment is provided, this article will be updated.

Thursday’s filing merely formalizes a dispute that has continued to percolate behind the scenes after the county’s takeover of the GWHCF in 2022.

The lead plaintiff, Frank Kwaning, remains the president of the union, and has publicly accused Williams of trying to break the union by firing so many of its members at her first opportunity.

The filing says Kwaning was a fourteen-year veteran of the facility, and “did not have any violations of rules…until the very end of Geo’s administration of the jail, when he was disciplined for inadvertently bringing headache medicine” into the jail.

Kwaning went before the Delaware County Council in December to complain publicly for a second time in as many years about conditions at the prison.

“The [union] members are as frustrated as they could be. So through the members, I am told to let you know that the council should step in,” Kwaning said. “Go to the facility. Talk to the members. The morale is at its lowest level. One may have thought that with this interim agreement that we have with the $3 raise that we have gotten — and we thank the council for agreeing with the union for the $3 raise — we were of the view that with the $3 raise, the morale was going to be up. But because of the treatment that has been meted out to the members, the morale is at its lowest, at best.”

Councilmember Kevin Madden, who chairs the county’s Jail Oversight Board, rebuked Kwaning.

“Mr. Kwaning, I recognize your position as head of the union. Given the fact there is an open negotiation over an agreement, I will, as always, refrain from engaging in a back-and-forth about such things. But I will certainly remind you and others that I am regularly at the facility and I am regularly interacting with the workforce. So, you know, any suggestion that council is not involved regularly with our facility would be inaccurate.”

Councilmember Richard Womack said at that meeting he would go to the prison and do an inspection and talk with correctional officers. Sources have indicated to Broad + Liberty that Womack’s tour did happen, but Womack has not offered any public comment about his assessment.

Just two months earlier, the union and the county announced they had agreed in principle to a temporary agreement.

The Inquirer reported at the time that Kwaning, “and the union’s vice president, Ashley Gwaku, were among those whose employment was terminated by the county. The pair filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the state’s Labor Relations Board, saying they were unfairly targeted because of their work with the union. A judge recently ruled against them, saying the county was justified in its decision not to retain them.”

A Broad + Liberty report from January noted that many sources close to the prison indicated that the largest issue contributing to low morale was the decision by Williams to remove “split shifts.”

Previously under GEO management, when an employee was given a mandatory 8-hour overtime shift attached to the end of the regular shift, the officer could split the overtime shift by taking four hours and finding a coworker to take the other four hours. But sources say Williams nixed that.

As a result, sources said many new hires began to quit after having their first mandatory overtime shifts placed on them, realizing that they would sometimes have to work sixteen-hour days with only eight hours to recover before being right back at work.

Meanwhile, the prison has witnessed one death in January and one in February, although those fatalities may not end up being counted on the prison’s annual statistics to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

In each of those cases, the inmate had a medical emergency that began at the prison. Prison officials, however, appear to have been able to get courts to technically release them such that when they passed, they were not technically in the custody of the GWHCF.

The plaintiffs are represented by the Derek Smith Law Group of Philadelphia.