Hillary Transue, 18, whose juvenile case triggered the legal action was the victim of the Democrat and Republican Spoil system that puts Judges on the bench who in no way deserve to be on the bench. In a 2007 hearing that lasted less than a minute, "Judge" Ciavarella ordered Transue to serve three months at a wilderness camp for lampooning a school administrator on MySpace. She returned home after a month when her mother contacted the Juvenile Law Center for help.

In Ciavarella's courtroom, juvenile injustice was executed quickly to destroy lives and cost families money they couldn't afford. Often within minutes and without benefit of counsel for the children the lives of around 6,500 families were turned upside down.

For $2.6 million over seven years, Judge Ciavarella and Judge Michael T. Conahan helped the owner of the Wilderness Camp detention centers make over $58 million in contracts.

Ciavarella was raised in the East End section of the city Wilkes-Barre. He attending St. Mary's High School and after graduating from King's College he attended Duquesne University School of Law, receiving his law degree in 1975. Ciavarella entered private legal practice, becoming a partner in the firm of Lowery, Ciavarella and Rogers. From 1976 to 1978 he was city solicitor and then from 1978 until 1995 he served as solicitor for the city zoning board. In 1995 he ran for judge in Luzerne County and was elected to a ten year term. He was re-elected to a second ten year term in 2005.

Some people are using this case to suggest that judges should not be elected. I don't agree with that. But what I do say is that Judges should not be exempt from partisan, political based elections. It is important for the political parties to properly require judges to campaign, debate, and look for skeletons in one another's closet. The problem is not the electing of Judges, but the lack of people in races being qualified to be judges so that there is not a true political campaign or race for the positions.

Political Parties have got to do more to encourage a greater variety of people running for different offices. Too often, especially when there is corruption in the Party itself, the Political Parties do more to discourage than encourage honest people to participate in politics. And when members of political parties get caught in corruption, the parties do more to rally around the criminal to protect them than to purge the Party of corruption.

Article: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20091030_Pa__high_court_tosses...

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Ciavarella