In a 2-1 decision the U.S. Circuit Court ruled that Pennsylvania’s Congressional lines do not violate current law.

U.S. Circuit Court judges D. Brooks Smith and Patty Shwartz wrote in their opinion that the courts should not be directing a complete rewrite of Congressional maps, that that should be the purview of the political branches.  

“The structural change plaintiffs seek must come from the political branches (elected legislatures and executives) or the political process itself, not the courts,” the Judges wrote in the opinion, according to the Patriot News.  

In his dissenting opinion, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Michael Baylson said that he found five of the 18 districts violated the “traditional” factors for redistricting which “requires that the 2011 map be redrawn.”  

Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati (R-Jefferson) celebrated the ruling saying it “serves to further strengthen my view that the plaintiffs (in this and other remaining cases) should abandon their costly legal actions and allow the legislature’s examination of reforms to move forward” according to the Patriot News.  

The current Congressional maps still have to survive a challenge before the state Supreme that will be argued next week.