Challenge to Gov. Corbett re appeals: Feelin' lucky, punk?

Fourth Tier Tom is having a very bad time. Beware the Ides of March, Tommy! Our new Democratic Attorney General has already got Corbett on the ropes on a couple of issues. Now Commonwealth Court's Democratic President Judge Dante Pellegrini (formerly City Solicitor for Pittsburgh, before being elected to the Commonwealth Court in 1990) has handed down 2 excellent decisions, stopping Corbett dead in his tracks. Corbett has the right to appeal both cases. Will he? I picture Clint Eastwood/ Dirty Harry in judge's robes facing down One-Term Tom Corbett and growling:
“You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?”

Or, "Gonna take an appeal, Tom? Go ahead. Make my day!"

The first was an en banc decision, decided 4 to 3, with 2 Republican judges joining Democrat Pellegrini in the majority:

"A Pennsylvania appellate court panel struck down provisions in a new law regulating the state's booming natural gas industry that opponents said would leave municipalities defenseless to protect homeowners, parks and schools from being surrounded by drilling sites or waste pits. The decision was a defeat for Gov. Tom Corbett and the natural gas industry, which had long sought the limitations, and a prompt appeal to the state Supreme Court was expected."

The state Commonwealth Court ruled 4-3 in a decision released Thursday that the limitations in the so-called Act 13 violated the state constitution. The opinion's author, President Judge Dan Pellegrini, said the provisions upended the municipal zoning rules that had previously been followed by other property owners, unfairly exposing them to harm.

"If the commonwealth-proffered reasons are sufficient, then the Legislature could make similar findings requiring coal portals, tipples, washing plants, limestone and coal strip mines, steel mills, industrial chicken farms, rendering plants and fireworks plants in residential zones for a variety of police powers advancing those interests in their development," Pellegrini wrote.

The second case was a case of original jurisdiction, with only one judge, again Dante Pellegrini. In his opinion

HARRISBURG - A state judge has ordered the Corbett administration to reinstate funding for programs that provided health insurance to tens of thousands of low-income Pennsylvanians.

In his ruling Tuesday, Commonwealth Court President Judge Dan Pellegrini found that two statutes that stripped money from the adultBasic and Medicaid programs were unconstitutional because they diverted money from the federal tobacco settlement to finance items other than health care in the general budget.

"This is a significant victory for people in Pennsylvania who work hard and play by the rules, but can't afford private insurance," said William R. Caroselli, a lawyer whose firm represented more than 100 former adultBasic recipients in the suit that triggered the ruling.

"AdultBasic was created to help the working poor. It's not a handout, and it presents no cost to the taxpayers. What the administration did was reprehensible, and we are pleased that the Commonwealth Court ordered them to reinstate this important program."