Pennsylvania Court’s Top Judge Defeats Attorney’s Reprisal Claim

A Pennsylvania county court’s former child custody master won’t get a trial on whether the court’s president judge and administrator drove her out in retaliation for her repeated opposition to its revamped custody procedures.

Lisa Tresslar’s speech against the change by the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas wasn’t protected by the First Amendment because she didn’t speak as a private citizen, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said. Tresslar instead spoke pursuant to her official duties when she voiced her objections to the Family Law Committee of the Northampton Bar Association and a judicial conduct ...