A federal district court has rejected a lawsuit filed by eight Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers that sought to block a new congressional map drawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
A three-judge panel said in its opinion Monday the Republicans did not have standing to bring such a case and dismissed the complaint filed by two Pennsylvania GOP state leaders and eight Republican members of Congress who are up for re-election in November.
Republicans challenged the map drawn by Pennsylvania’s high court in February and argued it usurped the legislature’s authority to draw district lines. The GOP lawmakers wanted the federal court to block the new district lines, and argued the state Supreme Court’s actions violated the Constitution’s Elections Clause.
But the federal court rejected that argument.
“We hold that the federal Elections Clause violations that the plaintiffs allege are not the plaintiffs to assert,” the three-judge panel said in its opinion. “Because fundamental principles of constitutional standing and judicial restraint prohibit us from exercising jurisdiction, we have no authority to take any action other than to dismiss the plaintiff’s verified complaint.”
Republicans had asked the federal court to prohibit the state from using the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s map in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections and instead keep in place the map drawn by the GOP-led legislature in 2011, which the state’s high court struck down as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The federal court, however, decided that the state map should prevail.
“The issues presented in this case touch on questions of high importance to our republican form of government. As the 2018 election cycle quickly progresses, these issues are of particular salience to the voters of the Commonwealth,” the federal judges said in their opinion. “The Plaintiffs’ frustration with the process by which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court implemented its own redistricting map is plain. But frustration, even frustration emanating from arduous time constraints placed on the legislative process, does not accord the Plaintiffs a right to relief.”
“In short, the plaintiffs invite us to opine on the appropriate balance of power between the Commonwealth’s legislature and judiciary in redistricting matters, and then to pass judgment on the propriety of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s actions under the United States Constitution,” the judges continued. “These are things that, on the present record, we cannot do.”
The ruling from the federal district court comes one day before the deadline for congressional candidates to file to run in Pennsylvania. The state’s primary election is scheduled for May 15.
Under the congressional map drawn in 2011, Republicans held 13 of the state’s 18 House seats. But the new, court-drawn map gives Democrats a slight edge.
The case filed in federal court by the GOP members of Congress and state leaders stems from a January order from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that invalidated the congressional map drawn after the 2010 census.
The justices found the map violated the Pennsylvania constitution and ordered the GOP-led General Assembly to draw and submit new congressional boundaries to Gov. Tom Wolf by Feb. 9.
Pennsylvania Republicans met their court-imposed deadline, but Wolf, a Democrat, rejected their proposed map.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court then stepped in to draw new congressional district lines.
In addition to challenging the court-drawn map in federal court, Republicans also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and block the map drawn by the state Supreme Court.
The lawmakers asked Justice Samuel Alito last month to put the state Supreme Court’s order on hold, but the high court has yet to respond.
Alito rejected a similar request from GOP legislative leaders in February.
