Commonwealth Court Says Political Parties Must Follow Bylaws — Things look bleak and corruption seems permanent then comes an unexpected victory.
Commonwealth Court, Sept. 16, overturned a ruling by Bucks County Judge Brian T. McGuffin saying the county’s GOP doesn’t have to follow its charter.
The suit was filed by Barry Casper and 43 others in 2023 after an ethics complaint regarding the reorganization election on June 25, 2022 was ignored by the state party.
The election saw Pat Poprik nearly unseated as party chair by Casper, who was leading an insurgency.
Issues occurred in the election such as one person casting 45 proxy votes and disregard for Roberts Rules of Order.
These would be in violation of the party bylaws.
The frosting on this cake though was that the party was found not to have a legal set of bylaws.
The ones on file with the Board of Elections were dated June 26, 1972 by produced by a word processor with the “signature” of then chairman C.V. Afferback printed in a stylish italic font.
They were later replaced with the original typewritten ones.
The Court ruled that Pennsylvania’s Nonprofit Corporation Law and Nonprofit Association Law explicitly cover political organizations.
In other words political parties are bound by the same governance rules as every other nonprofit in the state.
The court noted that bylaws must be properly adopted, signed, and filed to be valid.
The matter has been returned to the Bucks County Common Pleas Court as how to make things right.
The plaintiffs were represented by Andrew Teitelman and Joshua Prince.
Ada Nestor has an excellent article about this in Broad and Liberty which can be found here, and Prince has written about it on his blog concerning the state-wide implications.
