Pennsylvania Republicans Plan Another Lawsuit To Fight Fix To Gerrymandering

The court-drawn map was a last resort after the state Supreme Court ruled Jan. 22 that the one in place was unconstitutional. The court gave the legislature and governor about three weeks to agree on a map, and said it would draw its own if they did not. Republican leaders put forward a proposal that the legislature didn’t vote on and that Gov. Tom Wolf (D) rejected. Wolf said the map still amounted to an unfair partisan gerrymander, a claim backed up by several statistical analyses.

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Once the state Supreme Court proposed its map, Crompton said, the parties would have gone through every step outlined by the court’s order. He also said the GOP legal team is figuring out who it would name as a defendant in a new lawsuit, because it could not sue the state Supreme Court.

After Alito rejected the GOP claims, Richard Hasen, an election law expert and professor at the University of California, Irvine, said there were several legal doctrines that “pretty much preclude a collateral attack in federal court on the state court’s order.” One example is the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, which says the U.S. Supreme Court is the only federal court that can review a state court decision.

Continue reading:  Pennsylvania Republicans Plan Another Lawsuit To Fight Fix To Gerrymandering

Commentary by The Secular Jurist:  Stubborn, aren’t they?  Pennsylvania Republicans were shot down by the state supreme court, shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court, shot down by the governor, shot down by statistical experts, and are being shot down by legal experts.  Yet, despite more virtual holes in them than the bad guy in a combat video game, they are determined to file another lawsuit even though they can’t figure out who to sue!