In separate rulings on Monday, a federal court panel and the United State Supreme Court denied challenges by Pennsylvania Republican leaders seeking to stop implementation of the new congressional map issued last month by the state Supreme Court.
The decisions come one day ahead of the deadline for the state’s congressional candidates to file petitions to be on May’s primary ballot and make it likely that the new districts will remain in place. The new map was issued by the state Supreme Court in February after an earlier decision in which its Democratic majority ruled the current map, drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2011, was the result of gerrymandering and violated the state constitution.
A three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania ruled the two state Senate leaders and eight Republican members of the state’s Congressional delegation did not have standing to bring the claim and that the court did not have jurisdiction to overturn that state Supreme Court’s decision.
The panel of judges, each of whom was appointed by President George W. Bush, dismissed the suit by state Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, Sen. Michael Folmer, who chairs the state Senate government committee, and U.S. Reps. Glenn Thompson, Lou Barletta, Ryan Costello, Mike Kelly, Tom Marino, Scott Perry, Keith Rothfus, and Lloyd Smucker.
They had argued that the state Supreme Court’s decision usurped the state legislature’s authority to determine the congressional map and did not allow the General Assembly enough time to come up with a new one. The Congressmen also claimed injury because their districts had been radically altered and because they had spent time and resources campaigning in their current districts.
The district court’s ruling can still be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a separate action, Speaker of the Pennsylvania House Mike Turzai and Senate President Pro-Tempore Joseph Scarnati had sought an emergency stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, which if granted would have kept the 2011 map in place for this year’s election while they continued their appeal.
The Supreme Court denied the application for stay without explanation.
“I applaud these decisions that will allow the upcoming election to move forward with the new and fair congressional maps,’ Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement. ‘The people of Pennsylvania are tired of gerrymandering and the new map corrects past mistakes that created unfair Congressional Districts and attempted to diminish the impact of citizens’ votes.’
Corman, Scarnati and Folmer said in a statement that they were disappointed with the decisions and that the district court case was not decided on its factual merits.
“We are upset by the decisions today of the three judge panel in Middle District Court and the U.S. Supreme Court regarding redistricting. It is disappointing that the U.S. Supreme Court did not intervene. This Middle District Court case was dismissed on the legal issue of standing, not on the facts of the case.
“We still believe these issues in this case are vital constitutional questions that deserve to be heard, including the PA Supreme Court taking on the role of creating legislation. The state court’s decision to draw maps takes us down a path for the creation of another legislative body in Pennsylvania.”
A group of 18 voters and the League of Women Voters brought the initial lawsuit that claimed the 2011 was a result of partisan gerrymandering. The state Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 22 in their favor and gave the legislature and Wolf until Feb. 15 to agree on a new one.
Wolf declined to sign off on the new map submitted by the legislature, so the court, with the assistance of Stanford law professor Nathaniel Persily, drew their own and ordered that it be put in use beginning with the May 15 primary.
The new map straightens many of the borders between districts and splits fewer counties. Political experts agree that Democrats stand to gain seats in the House under the revised map, especially in the southeastern part of the state where districts previously had strangely-drawn boundaries but now join urban and moderate suburban areas.
Centre County, which had previously been entirely within the 5th District currently represented by Thompson, is split in the new map. Now, State College, Ferguson Township, Harris Township, College Township, part of Halfmoon Township and the Penns Valley Area are in the new 12th District, where Marino is the incumbent, and the rest of the county is in the new 15th, where Thompson is the incumbent.
