A State College Borough Council member is looking to become Centre County’s next judge.
Gopal Balachandran announced his candidacy for the vacancy on the Court of Common Pleas bench during a press conference on Thursday afternoon at The Graduate State College hotel. A registered Democrat, Balachandran intends to cross file for the Democratic and Republican primaries in May, as is typical for judicial elections.
If elected, Balachandran would become the first Indian-American Court of Common Pleas judge in Pennsylvania.
He is a professor at Penn State Law, where he leads the Criminal Appellate and Post-Conviction Services Clinic, and is a founder of the Centre County Pardon Project. Before moving to State College, Balachandran was a public defender for more than 10 years in urban and rural districts in Massachusetts, New York and Maryland.
“The Court of Common Pleas is one of the most powerful institutions in Centre County,” he said. “The court hears cases involving custody, municipal agencies and most importantly criminal law, where the profound power of the government can take away a private citizen’s liberty, property and privacy.
“It’s essential that any court has judges with experience and expertise in criminal law, particularly in Centre County, where, conservatively, 50% if not more of the cases heard by a judge are criminal in nature, and yet the court as currently constructed has no judge with significant criminal law experience or experience in representing everyday people with everyday problem.”
He added that as a constitutional and public interest lawyer, he has seen “the sad, endless dance of the justice system,” where a client can be a defendant in a criminal case, and later a victim.
“To me the thread that runs through it all which defines both my professional responsibilities and ethical obligations is compassion — compassion for individuals in poverty, compassion for those in the hell of addiction, compassion for the improper circuitry in brains, compassion for the victims of crime suffering harm and looking to be seen heard and made whole,” he said.
Balachandran was joined at the campaign launch by family members and dozens of local politicos and other supporters.
Among them was State College Mayor Ezra Nanes, who introduced Balachandran by noting his criminal law experience and the potentially historic nature of his candidacy.
“Gopal has a clear and true moral compass,” Nanes said. “He’s open-minded and he is able to consider differing points of view as he draws on his own extensive learning and experience. He sees the deeper truth in the underlying factors at play in important issues and he has shown he has the courage to stand by the things he believes in, and to follow through on those things. He cares about people and he is deeply committed to justice, fairness and equity.”
Balachandran lives in the College Heights neighborhood with his wife, Jyoti, and their two children, Nakula and Nikhil. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina, a master’s from the University of Chicago, and his juris doctor at George Washington University.
Now in the second year of a four-year term on State College Borough Council in 2021, Balachandran said he plans to remain on council throughout the campaign.
He is the second candidate to announce plans to run for the Court of Common Pleas vacancy created by Judge Pamela Ruest’s retirement. Attorney Julia Rater, a partner at McQuaide Blasko, announced her candidacy in December and also will cross-file for the Democratic and Republican ballots in the May 16 primary election.
