We’re not sure impeachment is necessarily the answer when it comes to those critical of an Allegheny County magisterial district judge who has come under fire this year.

But we do think the interesting case of Magisterial District Judge Xander Orenstein should be instructive for voters across the state as they go to the polls to vote for local judges. Pennsylvania is one of 32 states that doesn’t require its local judges to be lawyers. Here in Warren County, for example, only one of three local judges came to the bench as practicing lawyers, though one was a former police chief and the other secured a masters degree before running for a judgeship.

But there are rarely complaints against the three Warren County judges like the ones leveled against Orenstein.

Orenstein was pulled from arraignment hearings in April after suspects facing serious crimes were also granted no-cash bail. One was accused of leading law enforcement on a high-speed chase and the other was accused of trafficking more than $1 million worth of suspected fentanyl.

More recently Orenstein didn’t set bail for a homeless man who was accused of assaulting and robbing a person, then evading arrest. The homeless man didn’t appear in court as required and later murdered a Pennsylvania State Liquor Control Enforcement agent who was out jogging.

Orenstein was up front when he ran for office in 2021, running on a platform of setting lower bail amounts than his predecessor while building what Orenstein said is a more fair judicial system. Orenstein defeated his predecessor by 39 votes. It took three years before Orenstein had his ability to preside over arraignment hearings pulled over a string of cases in which bail wasn’t set only to see serious crimes happen when the defendant committed further offenses. No one in the Allegheny County district who cast a ballot for Orenstein should have been surprised by the results.

Orenstein isn’t a lawyer, but he had to pass a required one-month training course, pass a test and then undertake 32 continuing education hours a year. We think Kate Klunk, a Republican House representative who represents part of York County, has a potential remedy with legislation that would require potential judges to have taken the required training and passed the test before filing paperwork to run for a judgeship.

That would at least give voters the peace of mind to know a judge has the basic knowledge needed to take the job when their term begins and help weed out those who may struggle with how to balance public safety with the legal rights of the accused.

Not all judges need to be lawyers. But voters should have a sense of a potential judge’s ability to administer the law. Klunk’s bill would do just that.