Supreme Court Blocks Republican Attempt to Overturn Pennsylvania’s Fair Congressional Map
For Immediate Release
October 3, 2022
Contact
Brooke Lillard
lillard@redistrictingaction.org
Supreme Court Blocks Republican Attempt to Overturn Pennsylvania’s Fair Congressional Map
Washington, D.C. -- Today, in a victory for voters, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to take up Costello v. Carter, a Republican attempt to overturn a fair congressional map in Pennsylvania put in place by the state’s supreme court. In this case, Republicans pursued an argument similar to the independent state legislature theory – a fringe legal theory Republicans are pursuing in a redistricting case out of North Carolina called Moore v. Harper – to argue that the federal constitution should constrain the state supreme court’s ability to adopt a congressional map when the state’s executive and legislative branches fail to reach an agreement and timely enact a map. In this appeal, Pennsylvania Republicans claimed that the state court should have deferred to the legislature’s map, even though Governor Tom Wolf vetoed the legislature’s proposed congressional map.
Republicans pursued this appeal after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted a fair congressional map that will allow the parties to compete on a balanced playing field. In the underlying action, originally captioned Carter v. Chapman, the National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF)-supported Carter petitioners asked the state supreme court to step in to draw the state’s new congressional districts, because the Commonwealth’s executive and legislative branches failed to do so. With the support of the NRAF, the Carter petitioners submitted a congressional plan to the court that adhered to Pennsylvania’s redistricting requirements and presented a fair, compliant solution that most accurately reflects the state’s population changes. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ultimately adopted that map.
Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, issued the following statement:
“This decision is a victory for Pennsylvania voters and halts an extreme attempt to rewrite the federal constitution so that it serves Republican legislators’ intent on achieving unearned power for their own party. The fact that this appeal was filed in the first place with our nation’s highest tribunal underscores that Republicans will do anything to gerrymander – even if it means weakening our country.
“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted a congressional map that is neither a Democratic nor a Republican map, but a competitive map that reflects the competitive nature of the Commonwealth. It should not be lost on the public that this was another desperate attempt by Republicans to overturn a lawful and fair decision by a state supreme court simply because they did not like the end result. These actions are not just partisan, they are dangerous.”
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