Marc Elias: On behalf of Pennsylvania voter, tonight we filed a lawsuit to ensure fair and equal con

[soothsayer]

Link to tweet

?s=21


Marc E. Elias
@marceelias
·
Apr 26, 2021
🚨BREAKING: On behalf of Pennsylvania voter, tonight we filed a lawsuit to ensure fair and equal congressional redistricting. @DemRedistrict

🚨NEW: VOTERS CHALLENGE MAP IN PA
democracydocket.com

https://t.co/siwCshBdcG


Marc E. Elias
@marceelias
Specifically, the voters have asked the court to be ready to draw new maps given the likelihood that a divided state government isn't able to pass new maps before the 2022 elections.
9:22 PM · Apr 26, 2021

[FBaggins]

1. Seems like a waste of paper and of the court's time

It's most likely just an attempt to get some press coverage for redistricting and perhaps pressure the state legislature a little.

The first issue (all four counts) boils down to a big "duh". The Census shows that the state needs to be redistricted. That's already required by law and planned (and is true of virtually every state)... so it's premature at best to ask the court to do anything.

The second issue is entirely logical. It probably IS unlikely that the state legislature and governor will agree on a plan. But you can't ask the court to take official notice of something that hasn't happened yet.

And, of course, they want the state to pay them for their efforts.

[PortTack]

3. I highly doubt anything Marc Elias puts his name to is a waste of paper and the courts time

You do know he’s the one that filed and won all the law suits following the election and is one of the groups currently suing IA, GA and other states for extreme voter restriction laws.

Geez could we show some support for the guy who practically saved us from the qgop??!!

[FBaggins]

4. You must not be familiar with how the game is played

Attorneys frequently file things that waste the court's time. That doesn't mean that they aren't good attorneys... just that they have some other motivation than what their filing asks for.

He likely considers it worth his time because it gets the issue into the news. The short period of time (minutes?) between the release of the census data and the filing makes it clear that managing the news cycle is his goal (as well as making clear that he drafted it long before the census data was actually released).

The state supreme court drafted the existing maps about three years ago. It's pretty ridiculous to charge the state with violating the constitution mere seconds after the census tells them that they'll have to redraw the lines... particularly when the state has a legally defined process requiring them to be redrawn.

As another quick example - one of his requests is to enjoin the state from using the existing maps. How would that even be possible when the state will now only have 17 seats instead of 18?

[Deminpenn]

5. We have a Dem gov and R state legislature

When the state supreme court threw out the gerry-mandered maps, they charged the legislature and governor to come to consensus on new maps that followed the state constitution. Gov Wolf's office produced a new map, but the state legislature refused to do one until the very last minute. Then the one the Rs offered up was only slightly less gerry-mandered than the one the court threw out. At that point, the court stepped in and imposed its own map.

There is every reason to believe a similar situation will play out. The governor won't like the legislature's map and visa versa. It could well be that the court again will be required to draw the map.

[FBaggins]

8. All of that is true

But the very ruling the filing cites says that courts can get involved in line drawing if the legislature and executive fail to agree... it doesn't say that they can get involved before either one even drafts a proposal. Let alone ten seconds after the state is provided with the necessary information to even start drafting one.

[PortTack]

6. You must not be familiar with Marc Elias!! You know, the guy that won 60 challenges to Dotard's

Nonsense following the election.

This guy does NOT file frivolous lawsuits...period

[FBaggins]

7. The appeal to authority fallacy doesn't add weight to your position

Perhaps try responding to the actual points?

Do you honestly believe (for ANY state) that the release of new census data instantly makes the state guilty of a constitutional violation?

I'm not saying that he isn't a good attorney. Just that good attorneys often use court filings to jump-start public discussions - rather than to actually win what they asked for.

This guy does NOT file frivolous lawsuits...period

Actually... he was recently sanctioned by a circuit court for wasting their time and ordered to pay attorney fees to those who had to waste time in replying to a duplicate motion that had previously been denied. "Frivolous" is a stretch since (as I said) he does have a purpose in making his filing. It just isn't likely that the purpose is what he requested.

[FakeNoose]

2. How about just redo the Census - correctly this time?

Now that Chump is gone - for good I hope - we need to recognize that the 2020 Census was purposely mismanaged from Day One. There was never any hope of getting correct population numbers the way the Repukes were handling it, because that was the entire plan all along.

Mismanaging the census = suppressing voters.

It also penalizes the "blue states" and the American cities that are almost entirely Democratic voters. Chump was the first and I hope the only President who managed to politicize and simultaneously fuck-up the census. Is there any way we can possibly impeach him again?

[FBaggins]

10. How?

Congress could have authority to create a mid-decade census (assuming it could get around a filibuster), but the constitution would have to be amended in order to apply that new census to the reapportionment process.

[modrepub]

9. We're Loosing A Seat

What will be interesting is where that lost seat will come from. My bet is the legislature will try and put it in SE PA, where the Dems are most competitive.

Outside of the SE corner of the state (I-78 to I 81), the state's population is declining. That in my opinion is where the lost seat should reside. If these trends continue and the "lost" seat is not in this area, the Repubs will gain more clout in Congress because their representatives in PA will have fewer people than areas in the SE where the population is growing.

[Deminpenn]

11. The Rs are going to target Lamb's seat

It honestly makes sense. It would be easy enough to divide that district up between the 16th (Mike Kelly) and the 18th (Mike Doyle) with Kelly getting the Beaver and Butler county parts and Doyle the Allegheney county part. It's possible that Butler county could all be in the 15th (Glenn Thompson) if Kelly gets all of Beaver county.

That would comport with the state supreme court's ruling that districts be compact and not divide municipalities.

[Deminpenn]

12. Former U Pitt chancellor Mark Nordenberg

was chosen by the state supreme court to be the 5th member of the state legislative redistricting committee.

This committee is responsible for re-drawing the state house and state senate districts, not the congressional districts. It's 2R, 2D and and 5th member, but the Rs and Ds couldn't agree on who the 5 member should be so they asked the state supreme court to select that person. The court chose Nordenberg. Nordenberg's held various positions at state colleges and universities over the years. Hopefully he will rein in the partisan machinations of the state's Rs on this committee. Perhaps we will finally get more compact state legislative districts and undo at least some of the extreme partisan gerry-mandering introduced by former Speaker John Perzel.