You Be the Judge

This is what youth civic engagement looks like: 18-year-old Vismita Holavanahalli, a 2025 Summer Jawn intern, finds time in her Temple first-year schedule to visit her Central High alma mater. There, three PA Supreme court judges Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht, talk about their retention races.

The New York Times has sent a reporter, because of the importance of judges in this Pennsylvania race, especially in a time of so much government litigation. Here in PA, Supreme Court judges run in partisan races, that is, listed as Democrat or Republican, and then, they are up for retention; we, the people, vote for them to stay in or not.

The Times quotes Justice Donohue saying that the 60 young members of the audience are “among maybe 5 percent of the population in Pennsylvania that knows we have a retention election on Nov. 4 of this year.”

After they talk, Vismita Holavanahalli asks the question that 100% of VoteThatJawn followers want to know: what about voting law protections for young people?

Yaaaas!

OK, so justices are not allowed to comment directly on how they will vote in the future, but Justice Wecht, unwilling to let this bright young person go unanswered, said this, according to the Times: “...the point is that we do exist to vindicate constitutional rights.”

If young people show up and ask the questions, people running for office—any office—know that youth, like older people, will be watching. 

And that they will vote.