Courts

Pennsylvania Lawmaker Defies Courts, Refuses To Un-Gerrymander District, Will Try Kooky Appeal To Supreme Court

I shouldn't have to tell you what party this guy represents for you to object to his behavior.

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Last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state’s congressional districts were G.U.B.A.R (gerrymandered up beyond all recognition; let’s make that a thing). The court made its ruling based on the Pennsylvania Constitution, and therefore the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is the highest authority in the land on the matter.

The PA Supremes ordered the state legislature (controlled by Republicans) to submit a plan to the Governor (a Democrat) that didn’t violate the state constitution and contained “compact and contiguous districts.”

Anticipating that perhaps the two branches wouldn’t be able to get together on a map, the court said that a special master would be appointed to draw the maps if there wasn’t a plan in place by February 15th. There are midterm elections and primaries happening this year, after all. Towards that end, the court ordered the legislature to turn over some municipal data to the special master.

In response, Joseph Scarnati, the Republican President Pro Tempore of the Pennsylvania State Senate said… no. He just decided to ignore the court order because he thinks the order is unconstitutional and, well, that’s enough for him. From the HuffPost:

But Scarnati said he would refuse to comply. He said the court was not giving lawmakers a realistic time frame or guidance to redraw the map and was trying to “usurp” the right the U.S. Constitution gave them to draw congressional lines.

“In light of the unconstitutionality of the Court’s Orders and the Court’s plain intent to usurp the General Assembly’s constitutionally delegated role of drafting Pennsylvania’s congressional district plan, Senator Scarnati will not be turning over any data identified in the Court’s Orders,” Brian Paszamant, Scarnati’s attorney, wrote in a letter to the court.

For the record, that’s not how this is supposed to work. If you don’t like a court’s decision, you can appeal. And if you lose your appeal, and you still don’t like it you can… run. Like, Joe Scarnati can go on the lam to avoid complying with this order. HE CAN GO INTO EXILE. But he can’t just sit there and be like “I don’t wanna.”

Some Pennsylvania Republicans are trying more traditional ways of getting around this ruling. They’ve launched a ridiculous appeal to the Supreme Court that I wouldn’t normally think had a snowball’s chance in hell, but these are abnormal times. UC-Irvine law professor Rick Hasen explains:

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But Republicans have already said they will appeal today’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. At first blush, it looks like there would be no basis, as this case is under the Pa. Constitution, and the state supreme court is the final arbiter of what that means. However, as I’ve noted, the state legislature may argue that Article I vests in the state legislature, and not the state courts, the power to set the rules for congressional elections (subject to congressional override). These kinds of arguments have not done well in recent years (think of the Arizona redistricting case), but perhaps that’s what the Republicans have in mind. Shades of Bush v. Gore. The argument is a long shot but not an impossible one.

This isn’t a good argument and it should be thrown out on its head but, hey, we’re basically living in the End Times, so who knows. WHAT EVEN MATTERS ANYMORE?

Republicans can do, or not do, anything, and there are no repercussions. There is no punishment. White evangelicals overwhelmingly support a man who probably cheated on his third wife with a porn star. Chris Christie left office with lower approval ratings than gonorrhea, but he just got hired by ABC News. Mitch McConnell literally stole a Supreme Court seat in broad daylight, now Neil Gorsuch has dinner with Republican Senators and is basically all Y U MAD BRO?

Why would a Republican at any level of government do anything he (’cause it’s always “he”) didn’t want to do? NOTHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO HIM.

Sorry, I need a freaking Xanax.

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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Strikes Congressional Districts on State Law Grounds; And There’s a Longshot Theory to Get SCOTUS Review [Election Law Blog]
Top Pennsylvania Republican Says He’ll Ignore Court Order To Help Fix Gerrymandering [HuffPost]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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