The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held that the 2020 amendment changing mandatory parole review for rape convicts from annual to triennial (61 Pa.C.S. § 6139(a)(3.3)) does not violate the ex post facto clause, because it alters only when the Board must conduct review—not the standards for granting parole or the Board’s authority to act on its own motion sooner.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the Commonwealth Court and held that “skill game” devices—electronic gaming terminals marketed as legal skill-based alternatives to slot machines—are “slot machines” under the Gaming Act and prohibited “gambling devices” under the Crimes Code, with a 120-day stay giving operators time to adjust before enforcement resumes.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed the denial of a license suspension appeal, holding that Court Administration’s ten-year failure to schedule a hearing — despite repeated court orders to do so — constituted an extraordinary government-caused delay that violated the licensee’s due process rights under the Middaugh framework and mandated dismissal of the suspension.