Ruling Prompts Pennsylvania Senate Legislation to Limit Court’s Redistricting Power
February 25, 2022 | Pennsylvania
One day after Wednesday’s Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision imposing a Democrat-favored congressional map, State Senator David Argall (R-Mahanoy City) is legislating to limit similar future rulings.
Argall, who chairs the Senate State Government Committee, asked colleagues to co-sponsor a measure disallowing any congressional-district plan ordered by a court to remain in effect after the election cycle for which it was enacted.
Lawmakers must remap congressional districts every decade to ensure that all districts contain an equal number of residents and that the relative size of each state’s congressional delegation coincides with population trends. Because Pennsylvania’s population growth has lagged behind that of most other states, Pennsylvania will lose one of its 18 congressional districts this year.
The General Assembly passed a redistricting plan initially drafted by a private citizen, Amanda Holt of Lehigh County, and later modified by the House State Government Committee. Although the redrawn map improved Republicans’ electoral advantage in the districts now held by U.S. Representative Conor Lamb (D-PA-17) and Matt Cartwright (D-PA-8), the nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave the plan high marks for fairness to both parties…. (Excerpt from Pennsylvania Daily Star)
