U.S. Supreme Court, 3-judge panel dismiss GOP challenges to Pa.'s new congressional district map

Pennsylvania's new congressional map will likely stand in the May primary election and beyond after Republicans on Monday lost two critical court challenges.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito denied a motion by House and Senate leaders to stay a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that replaced the state's 2011 map with the new one.

Hours earlier, a three-judge panel at the federal court in Harrisburg denied a Republican motion to block Gov. Tom Wolf's administration from using the new map. Republicans can appeal that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tuesday is the deadline for filing nomination petitions for the primary election.

While some action is still legally possible, the likelihood is that the state will use the new map, said Bruce Ledewitz, a Duquesne University law professor.

“I would think nobody is going to grant a stay at this point,” he said.

Lawyers for the Republican congressmen and state senators couldn't be reached for comment.

The fight over the congressional districts started in June when the League of Women Voters and 18 registered Democrats filed a state lawsuit claiming the districts violated Pennsylvania's constitution. The state Supreme Court agreed and threw out the old map on Jan. 22.

The court gave the General Assembly about three weeks to draw a new map, but the Legislature didn't vote on a new map before the deadline. That led the state Supreme Court to issue its own map.

“We are certainly excited that the challenge was rejected,” said Suzanne Almeida, executive director of the Pennsylvania chapter of the League of Women Voters. “It's past time for Pennsylvania to focus on the election.”

Wolf, a Democrat, praised the ruling.

“The people of Pennsylvania are tired of gerrymandering, and the new map corrects past mistakes that created unfair congressional districts and attempted to diminish the impact of citizens' votes,” the governor said in a news release.

More than 20 candidates have filed to run in the new districts, according to the Associated Press.

In addition to denying the Republican motion for a preliminary injunction to block use of the new map, the three-judge panel dismissed the underlying lawsuit that argued the state Supreme Court usurped the General Assembly's authority to draw the state's congressional districts.

The judge said the eight congressmen and two state senators don't have standing to represent the General Assembly and that the Legislature could file its own federal lawsuit.

“The plaintiffs' frustration with the process by which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court implemented its own redistricting map is plain,” the three federal judges say in their ruling. “But frustration, even frustration emanating from arduous time constraints placed on the legislative process, does not accord the plaintiffs a right to relief.”

While the ruling was based on jurisdictional grounds, the judges quoted a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld an Arizona citizen initiative that stripped that state's legislature of its ability to draw congressional districts and gave that authority to an independent commission, Ledewitz said.

In particular, the judge quoted part of that decision that said the U.S. Supreme Court has never held “that a state legislature may prescribe regulations on the time, place and manner of holding federal elections in defiance of provision of the state's constitution.”

That part of the three-judge decision is effectively a ruling on the merits of the Republican challenge, Ledewitz said. Having upheld the state Supreme Court's authority to declare the 2011 map unconstitutional, the only question is the proper remedy, he said.

“That's a question of state law” and belongs in state court, Ledewitz said.

Brian Bowling is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1218, bbowling@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TribBrian.