Great news! PA Supreme Court has ordered a new map for Congressional districts...for 2018! (Tweets)

[femmocrat]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Iliyah]

1. The PA Republicans will ex parte

to the US Supreme Court.

Congrats tho!

[Gothmog]

2. Yeah

[Gothmog]

3. From my twitter feed

Link to tweet

[FakeNoose]

4. Awesome! This is the one we needed

[DeminPennswoods]

5. GOP misses Feb 9 deadline for new maps

The GOP state legislature will miss the Court's Feb 9th deadline for drawing and enacting new maps. It looks like they might try to pass a "shell" bill and insert a new map later for Gov Wolf's approval by Feb 15th. Despite the language in the PA constitution and the very same language in both the per curiam order and later opinion regarding how districts are to be drawn, the GOP remains confused about the meaning of "compact" and "do not divide" towns/municipalities, etc.

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2018/02/08/No-new-Pa-congressional-map-by-court-mandated-deadline-gerrymandering-supreme-court/stories/201802080267

I agree that if the Court believes the legislature is making a good faith effort, they could allow the shell bill with a later inserted map up to the Feb 15th deadline.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. I was in a telephone town hall with my State Senator last night

and PA League of Women Voters Executive Director Suzanne Almeida participated to answer questions regarding the (so far) successful LWV lawsuit that gave us this opportunity and potential next steps.

She indicated that since it was obvious that the legislature wasn't going to have a map ready by the 9th (today) - and the Senator noted that the state House is not even in session this week - what could possibly happen is that since the SC said they would "impose" a map, the court might not actually have to draw one themselves. I.e., the court could invite the petitioners (which includes both the LWV & the voters from each congressional district that became the plantiffs) and the defendants ("the state" which I believe she said includes the current Governor, legislature, Secretary of State, etc) to provide any versions of maps that they propose, and then submit these to the Governor. After a review, one of the proposed maps could be adopted. The Governor has until February 15th to decide yay or nay on whatever is given to him.

It was emphasized however, that things are still a bit up in the air mainly because although the GOP lost their request to the SCOTUS to impose a stay, they could still come back around and sue the state Supreme Court for drawing its own map because the state Constitution vests that power in the legislature to do... Which is probably why the opportunity was given to get maps from all parties (including the legislature) to the Governor by next week.

The Senator also noted that there were various draft bills in both chambers regarding what would eventually need to be a change to the state Constitution to create a panel or commission similar to what is already in place for redrawing state legislative maps or even something that was independent and non-partisan, similar to what has been outlined by Fair Districts PA, where they have a legislative roadmap listed here.

So have to keep monitoring... Suzanne Almeida did point out a website the state has (it hasn't been updated recently) to get some historical info on redistricting in PA (both state legislative and congressional) -

http://www.redistricting.state.pa.us/index.cfm

[DeminPennswoods]

7. GOP gets its map done under the wire

Looks the state Rs managed to draw a new map they say complies with the Court's direction. They're sending it to Gov Wolf tonight.

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2018/02/09/GOP-Republicans-Pennsylvania-gerrymandered-district-map-Supreme-Court-congressional-districts/stories/201802090197

So all the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth that they didn't "understand" what the Court wanted and didn't have enough time to do it even they did was all a bunch of baloney. Can't say I'm surprised.

[femmocrat]

8. Thanks for the link! Apparently the dems aren't happy:

But within roughly an hour of its public release, top Democrats in the House and the Senate were urging Democratic Gov. Wolf to "reject it outright."

"The Republican leadership in both chambers blocked this process, refused to negotiate, and have now submitted a map directly to your office that we have not even seen," Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-Forest Hills) and House Minority Leader Frank Dermody (D-Oakmont) said in a joint letter to the governor released Friday evening.

The 12th and the 18th look a lot more compact, IMO.