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Federal Judges Throw Out GOP Challenge to New Congressional Maps

A federal panel of judges threw out a challenge to Pennsylvania’s new Congressional maps.

According to the Associated Press the judges ruled that they do not have the authority to act on the case other than to throw it out.  

The state’s Congressional map was redrawn by the state Supreme Court after the state Legislature and Governor Tom Wolf could not agree on a new map.  

The federal ruling comes a day ahead of the deadline for Congressional candidates to file nominating petitions to be on the May primary election.

28 Responses

  1. The legal analysis in the reporting is wrong. The Court found that the following groups did not have prudential standing: (1) Corman and Fulmer and (2) the Republican Congressional Delegation from Pennsylvania.

    They could bring another challenge if the House and Senate as a chamber vote in favor of a map. Even if the Governor vetoes the bill, there will still be a plausible basis on account of the Constitution’s delegation of the authority to the state legislature.

  2. What is the average political composition of this map overall?

    I’ve seen some posters say it’s R+1, D+1, or dead even?

    Which one is it?

  3. As usual most miss the point. With so many Democrats squeezed into the big city areas it is impossible to get what some of you think would be a fair map. There must be gerrymandering for one side or another to change the map. The PA Supreme Court should have given more time to the legislature to do it but the Federal Court’s won’t change that. The decision of the Federal Courts was not a determination of whether the maps were fair. They just exercised judicial restraint
    Something the PA Supreme Court did not do.

  4. The judges were correct, but not because, as some posters here claim, the districts were gerrymandered. They were correct because this is a Pennsylvania issue. So why doesn’t the Legislature draft and certify a new, fairer map and postpone the Congressional election to, say, Labor Day weekend, where it probably belongs anyway?

    1. Why doesn’t the Republican legislature bring HB 722 and/or SB 22 to a vote and set up a more fair redistricting process? Because they can’t win with a fair map.

  5. PA10 or PA12 or whatever. There is no victory here. What goes around comes around and around. Drawing district maps is an art not a science, and like art it’s a matter of taste. No one has won because the future happens.

  6. How does one approve one form of gerrymandering over another? Sure, the past congressional maps were ugly (specifically the old 7th), but the new districts are just as bad. If we are going to redistrict, it should be the RIGHT way. 2020 brings a whole new map, why don’t we stay these maps until 2020 when things can be done the right way and created by the legislature not the ACTIVIST JUDGES WHO SHOULD BE IMPEACHED.

    1. We get it. If Republicans don’t like the ruling, the judges are activist judges. If Republicans like the judges ruling, the judges are Constitution loving trailblazers.

      All 3 judges were Republicans appointed by Republican presidents.

      We’re getting a map that is fairer but still drawn to favor Republicans. Please whine some more about it.

      1. no more whining !!!! The county of York has not been split since the 1930’s Tom the gov could have stopped this. He cares not where he is from, The jeep trick is no more He is a Philly boy !!! AFTER ALL THAT IS THE BIG PRIZE !!!! WAGNER IS COMING

    2. The newer maps aren’t gerrymandered. They are redistricted. AND there are solutions before the state legislature they refuse to give hearing to because if they did and the bills passed they couldn’t go back to the methods used in 2011.

      1. Interesting, especially that the new pa5 is a perfect example of just doing a gerrymandered district in the other direction. Compactness is not an indicator of a fair indicator, we can see that in Indiana State.

        But we can also see that surprise surprise they kept Delaware county whole but added parts of Philadelphia to it. I wonder who that benefits

    3. EvilBobCaseyIV

      New maps are fair. Shut off FoxNews and put down the remote and your crack pipe.

      1. First of all you chicken nugget, the reply button is to respond to someone, creating a new comment shows that you’re as dumb as I would assume that you are. 2: That is a run on sentence. Learn how to use proper punctuation. 3. I’m a registered independent. And finally, 4: I apologizing for having respect for the PA Constitution that states that the lawmakers are supposed to create the new maps? You play by the rules of the game. Were the old maps in the Rs advantage? Absolutely, but they did it by playing by the rules of the game. Trump won the presidency and all of a sudden none of the rules matter anymore.

        All of these candidates might as well run in Narnia as far as I’m concerned. This process has caused mass hysteria and confusion. The Democratic party won a political/partisan game that shows just how desperate they are.

  7. The Republicans have no cause for complaint. The SCOPA map is still biased in their favor. It’s most likely to elect 7 Dems if the vote is split equally. That’s better than before, but still not fair. See http:/lipid.phys.cmu.edu/nagle for details.

    1. It looks like this map could swing from a 12-6 GOP Majority Delegation to a 10-8 Democrat Majority Delegation.

    1. No wonder the GOP wants to destroy public education. You’re a good example of that.

    2. Hey jonny rt wing Nazi loving troll !!just like you and trump kicked in the Suckkone race

  8. The reality is that the redistricting was so unfairly tilted toward the Republicans that even Republican judges rejected the appeal should say how intense the struggle is for a fundamentally fair democratic process. How could any intelligent person look at the Donald Duck kicking Goofy Congressional District and think that is good for government??? What concerns me is that the obvious answer which is an independent commission to draw congressional districts is so far going nowhere which means that, once more, the horrors of horribly drawn districts awaits the citizens of Pa in the future.

    1. Compactness is not a sure indicator that a district is fair. Nor is it possible to draw lines on a map that don’t benefit someone.

      1. Compactness keeps municipalities whole as much as possible while balancing population between Congressional Districts. That’s what the PA Constitution mandates from each redistricting process. And that keeps communities in the same District as much as possible.

        1. Making districts with right angles would be compact, but not fair. Even maintaining municipalities(and also, which) can be abused.

          The new pa5 looks great overlayed on a map of Delaware county, but when they needed to add people they chose to add from Philadelphia for the same partisan reasons as why the old pa 7 went in Chester county. It or not possible to draw lines on a map that do not specifically benefit one party on purpose.

  9. Before Republicans come here to write “OMG, these are activist judges, what a travesty for lovers of the Constitution!”, you could not get a more favorable group of right wing judges-yet they still rejected the PA GOP’s pleas. The three judge panel that just threw out the PA GOP’s challenge were 3 Republican judges all appointed by Republican presidents.

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