Gerrymandering in Pennsylvania – Which Gave Republicans Unfair Advantage – Is Unconstitutional, and Now Dead
The U.S. Supreme Court has effectively killed Pennsylvania’s gerrymandered districts that allowed more Republicans seats in Congress than Democrats despite Democrats overall winning the popular vote.Â
Pennsylvania Republicans lost at the state supreme court, and asked the top federal court to halt the state court’s order. They were refused early Monday afternoon.
“Last month, the state supreme court ordered new maps drawn for the 2018 election,” ThinkProgress reports, noting the state supreme court had ruled the state’s congressional gerrymandered maps were unconstitutional. “Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has officially stayed its hand, the state’s gerrymandered congressional districts are all but certain to become a relic of the past.”
Election law expert Rick Hasen weighed in, noting that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito denied the request.
“I called it a long shot, but had doubts when Justice Alito delayed things and asked for a response, but now the Justice has denied the request without referring it to the full court,” Hasen writes. “Still pending is the stay request in the North Carolina racial gerrymandering case. But the PA case has more national implications.”
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Image via Wikimedia: “Original cartoon of ‘The Gerry-Mander’, this is the political cartoon that led to the coining of the term Gerrymander. The district depicted in the cartoon was created by Massachusetts legislature to favor the incumbent Democratic-Republican party candidates of Governor Elbridge Gerry over the Federalists in 1812.”