The new congressional map enacted by the Pennsylvania state supreme court.Pennsylvania Supreme Court/www.pacourts.us
The Pennsylvania redistricting case is over. Thanks to the way election law works, the Republican appeal went straight to a 3-judge district court, which unanimously denied their arguments to overturn the new map. This ruling can be appealed only to the Supreme Court, but a few hours later the Supreme Court turned down a similar request to overturn the new map. There were no dissents.
So that’s that. The 2018 election will be held under a map that’s been drawn fairly, and that’s likely to mean Democrats will pick up three or four seats. It’s more bad news for Republicans.
If you’re in a pessimistic mood, this ruling doesn’t mean much since the Republican case was really weak from the start. If you’re in an optimistic mood, it might suggest that the Supreme Court is becoming less tolerant of blatant gerrymandering. Perhaps that means a favorable ruling is in store in the big gerrymandering case currently pending?
