In a case brought by members of the League of Women Voters, the court ruled January 22 that the state’s gerrymandered congressional district map, drawn by the GOP-controlled Legislature after the 2010 census, “clearly, plainly and palpably violates” the state constitution.
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Pennsylvania’s Republicans argued that the state court’s ruling violated the U.S. Constitution’s Elections Clause, which says that state legislatures determine when, where, and how to hold congressional elections.
Democrats, who hold only five of Pennsylvania’s 18 congressional districts despite its status as a closely divided electoral swing state, must capture at least two dozen seats now held by Republicans in the November 6 congressional mid-term elections to wrest control of the US House.
“Obviously the Legislature is a political body”.
Those would first be used in a congressional primary – now set for May 15, although that date might be moved forward in the year. Pennsylvanians need point only to the Congressional maps and plainly see that they were not designed with their best interests in mind.
Democrats had already been eyeing the Philadelphia suburbs as a prime target for picking up Republican-held congressional seats this fall. The Court’s recent decision to hear arguments in a case concerning shows that progress achieved on voting rights in recent decades is under threat.
The order, which gave no reasons, came from Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who acted without referring the case to the full court.
The result? Republicans hold 13 of the state’s 18 congressional districts despite Democratic voters outnumbering Republican voters by a 5-to-4 margin.
Technically, the state Republican lawmakers have the option of asking another Justices for a delay of the state court ruling, but such “Justice-shopping” – as lawyers call it – seldom succeeds.
If the legislature and the governor can not agree on new congressional boundaries, the court will adopt a new map based on evidence presented in the case. Lawmakers hope that the opinion, explaining what the justices found to be unconstitutional in the current map, would provide some guidance on how a new one should look. The Republican-controlled state legislature faces a February 9th deadline to get a newly redrawn map to Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. Another seat had been held by a Republican until former U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy resigned a year ago. If the General Assembly doesn’t get it done, or Wolf doesn’t approve, the court will redraw it. The White House is scrambling to make sure GOP candidate Rick Saccone fends off a young Democratic challenger, Conor Lamb, a Marine Corps veterans, in the 18th Congressional District.
The fan dance going on between the Supreme Court and the various groups in the several states that are trying to push back against the assault on the franchise is growing more fascinating by the day.
Meehan announced two weeks ago that he’s not running for re-election.
State Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman conceded the 2011 maps were drawn with politics partly in mind but argued that’s perfectly valid.
The Senate has passed a shell bill that can later be modified to redraw the maps, if the chambers agree on how to do it. The Republican-controlled legislature created the current map in 2011, after the 2010 USA census.
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The court rejected the Republican lawmakers’ request for a stay.
