The Federal District Court, in a 2 to 1 ruling Wednesday said Pennsylvania can keep its Congressional districts and rejected challenges from the League of Women Voters and Democratic voters who said the district map represented gerrymandering.
Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) said in reaction to the ruling: “Today’s decision by the Federal Court panel is another affirmation by the Judiciary that the 2011 Pennsylvania Congressional districts map is constitutional.
“For the past several months, plaintiffs have made dozens of strained legal arguments against the map and the majority decision once again invalidated the plaintiffs’ position.
“It remains my belief that these cases should have been stayed, pending the Wisconsin case decision by the US Supreme Court. However, the 2011 Pennsylvania Congressional districts map has been determined to be constitutional by both Federal and State judges, which serves to further strengthen my view that the plaintiffs should abandon their costly legal actions and allow the Legislature’s examination of reforms to move forward.”
Plaintiffs announced late Wednesday they will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Plaintiffs announced late Wednesday they will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Call To Withdraw Case
On Tuesday, Senate Republican Leaders called on the League of Women Voters to withdraw its redistricting case, saying defending the case has already cost taxpayers $1 million.
“Taxpayers are paying a hefty price for the League of Women Voters’ Washington, D.C., attorneys to argue gerrymandering, when courts have ruled that a partisan advantage is not against well-established federal and state law,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson). “With a Commonwealth Court Judge decision saying that the state’s Congressional districts are Constitutional, we hope the League and 18 petitioners would spare taxpayers further costs by dropping the case.”
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge P. Kevin Brobson’s December 2017 recommendation stated: “While Petitioners characterize the level of partisanship evident in the 2011 Plan as “unfair,” Petitioners have not articulated a judicially manageable standard by which this Court can discern whether the 2011 Plan crosses the line between permissible partisan considerations and unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering under the Pennsylvania Constitution.”
“As this case heads for the state Supreme Court, the costs to taxpayers only continue to mount,” said Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-Centre). “We are asking the League of Women Voters and its 18 plaintiffs in the case to be respectful of taxpayers and their hard-earned money. Instead of working against us, we invite them to participate in our ongoing review of the redistricting process. We recognize the value in examining this process and identifying ways it could be improved.”
Members of the Senate Republican Caucus have introduced and supported redistricting reform proposals in the current Legislative Session, and the Senate State Government Committee had scheduled a hearing to examine election reform and will look at redistricting reforms in the near future – all of which have been put on hold due to the pending litigation.
Senate Leaders urge that federal cases regarding this matter should cease as well.
“Spearheaded by the League of Women Voters, this lawsuit is partisan politics under the guise of good public policy,” Scarnati said. “Good public policy would be working with us toward an amicable solution that is thoroughly vetted by a General Assembly and its members, who are directly accountable to voters every 2 to 4 years, not by the courts.”
The PA Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the state case January 17.
Lt. Gov. Stack Submits New Congressional District Map
Lt. Gov. Mike Stack Wednesday filed a response in the Pennsylvania gerrymandering lawsuit and offered the Supreme Court a revised map he said is "fair, allows voters to truly select their congressman and allows communities with similar regional interests to have representation from a single member of Congress."
Stack's lawyers were responding to briefs filed by plaintiffs who have argued that Pennsylvania's 2011 congressional district map was unconstitutionally gerrymandered to partisan advantage.
Although a defendant in the original suit as President of the Senate, Stack is asking the high court to side with the plaintiffs and give the legislature two weeks to fix the current map, or have the court impose a new one. He was a member of the Senate when the 2011 map passed that chamber on a late-night party-line vote
"Like my Democratic colleagues, I had no input in its design. The Republican leadership created this map without any public input and the results have been a disaster." he said. "The current map has contorted districts and fails to keep communities of interest a single district."
After the League of Women Voters filed the suit last summer, academic experts used computer algorithms to create thousands of alternatives that met the constitutional obligation of being compact, contiguous and respective of communities of interest. Stack chose one from among them that he thought the court would be likely to accept.
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