HARRISBURG (Sept. 14, 2006) � Pennsylvania Bar Association President Kenneth J. Horoho Jr. today issued the following statement supporting the Pennsylvania Supreme Court�s ruling on the related cases of Herron v. Commonwealth, Stilp v. Commonwealth and Brown v. Commonwealth.

�The Pennsylvania Bar Association has long supported the need for an adequately compensated, fair and impartial judiciary, including its support of these principles during the 1967-68 Constitutional Convention.

A strong, competent and independent court is essential to sound and impartial judgment under the law. The judiciary�s compensation must be determined not on whether the judiciary � or for that matter the government as a whole � is held in favor by the public.

The facts of this case demonstrated plainly the need to shield judicial salaries from the political process and to tie these salaries to the federal judicial system � as Act 44 originally provided.�