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Governor Wolf Appoints Dilworth Paxson’s James Eisenhower to PA Court of Judicial Discipline
January 24, 2019 (Philadelphia, PA) – Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf appoints Dilworth’s James J. Eisenhower to a four-year term as a judge on the eight-member Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline. Eisenhower will be sworn in January 31st by Justice Debra Todd, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
The Court of Judicial Discipline of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania handles disciplinary action against judges. It was established by an amendment, adopted on May 18, 1993, to the Pennsylvania Constitution. In accordance with Article V, Section 18 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, the Court of Judicial Discipline is made up of eight judges, four having been appointed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and four by the Governor of Pennsylvania.
The Court of Judicial Discipline has jurisdiction over all judicial officers in Pennsylvania, and must hear and decide formal charges which are filed against a judicial officer by the Judicial Conduct Board. Judicial officers include all Magisterial District Judges, Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, the Commonwealth Court and the Superior Court; and Justices of the Supreme Court. The Court of Judicial Discipline has the authority to impose sanctions, ranging from a reprimand to removal from office, if the formal charges are sustained.
The initial members of the Court of Judicial Discipline were appointed during the fall of 1993 and sworn in on November 23, 1993. The Court’s permanent offices and courtroom are located in the Pennsylvania Judicial Center located at 601 Commonwealth Avenue, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The judges of the Court of Judicial Discipline, in accordance with the Pennsylvania Constitution, must be broken down as follows: three of the judges must be from either the Common Pleas, Superior or Commonwealth Courts; one Magisterial District Judge; two non-judge members of the Bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; and two non-lawyer electors.
Eisenhower is Of Counsel at Dilworth Paxson LLP, a professor of Election Law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and an expert on politics and policy for local, state and national media organizations, appearing regularly on WPVI 6ABC “Inside Story.”
Before entering private practice, Eisenhower served as a law clerk to the Honorable J. Sydney Hoffman of the Superior Court of PA, was a federal criminal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He also served as director of the Office of Global Affairs, National Security Council to President Clinton, addressing issues concerning international crime, narcotics, terrorism and war crimes. Additionally, Eisenhower authored PDD 42, the presidential decision directive on international crime and the executive order that seized the assets of the Columbian Cali drug cartel.
Eisenhower was the 2000 and 2004 Democratic candidate for Attorney General of Pennsylvania. In 2005, he was appointed to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA) overseeing Philadelphia’s finances, and served as their chairman from 2007 to 2011. He also served as a member of Mayor John Street’s Special Commission on Police Discipline and was appointed the first Chief Counsel for the Police Advisory Commission of Philadelphia.
Eisenhower served as chief criminal justice advisor to former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell during his 2002 gubernatorial election. During the governorship of Rendell, Eisenhower served on the Governor’s Cabinet for Children and Families within the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, and chaired the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), the Commonwealth’s lead agency for criminal justice, child delinquency prevention and the protection of victims of crime.
Eisenhower earned a Bachelor of Arts from Temple University and Juris Doctor from Antioch School of Law. As a Marshall Scholar at University of Oxford, he earned a Master of Philosophy and completed a thesis on terrorism in Northern Ireland.
Eisenhower is married to the Honorable Nora Dowd Eisenhower the former Secretary of Aging for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. They have two children, Christopher and Anne and are the proud grandparents of twin boys Asher and Dylan Turnbull.
