Supreme Court Justice Involved In 'Porngate' Scandal

Which Supreme Court justice allegedly traded sexually explicit emails with his colleagues?

The scandalous “porngate” controversy has been brewing for a while now in Pennsylvania. If you’re not familiar with what happened, it seems that hundreds of pornographic and racy emails were exchanged between dozens of state government employees and officials from 2008 to 2012. The vast majority of those emails were sent or read on state email accounts. Thus far, the names of eight former employees of the attorney general’s office have been released as being involved in the erotic email exchange, and two people have already resigned from their positions.

Late last week, the chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court demanded information on whether any of the justices seated on his bench had taken part in any of the sexy email swaps. Days later, we now know that at least one of the justices may have been improperly banging his gavel alongside state officials.

Which justice allegedly traded sexually explicit emails with his colleagues?

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice in question is Seamus McCaffery, who allegedly forwarded at least eight provocative emails to someone at the state attorney general’s office. McCaffery is also said to have been a recipient or sender of at least 54 of the “porngate” emails. That’s just lovely.

So what were all of those controversial emails like? The Morning Call explained it last week:

The pictures and videos that reporters saw … were not just old-fashioned Playboy centerfolds.

Most show sex acts, some with sex toys and various objects. In some photos, women portray sexually subservient secretaries, accompanied by phrases like “Devotion: making your boss happy is your only job.”

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Justice McCaffery allegedly sent and received these emails on his now-inactive personal Comcast account, rather than his state email account. When a reporter from the Morning Call tried to speak to him, the jurist replied: “Not only do I not have any comment, since when does the news media pry into personal emails?” No offense, Your Honor, but when judges are trading porn pics with other state agencies, people care.

In statements made Monday during a phone interview with reporters, [Chief Justice Ronald Castille] said a judge should not be fraternizing too closely with either prosecutors or defense attorneys by sending personal emails of any kind. Defense attorneys can seek to have a judge removed from a case involving the attorney general’s office if the judge’s name is in the sexually explicit emails, he said.

“The requirement is to be a neutral arbitrator of cases,” he said. “You cannot be sending pornographic emails to another agency.” …

A judge could be in violation of judicial rules of conduct for sending pornographic emails on government-owned computers or personal computers, Castille said.

Will Justice McCaffery be hit with a misconduct complaint for his participation in pornographic playtime? Only time will tell, but judging from the emails he allegedly sent and received, he may enjoy the spanking.

Kathleen Kane releases requested sexually explicit emails received by former attorney general staffers [Morning Call]
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery sent explicit emails [Morning Call]

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