Pennsylvania Voters File Impasse Lawsuit with Support of the National Redistricting Action Fund
Contact
Brooke Lillard • Lillard@redistrictingaction.org
Washington, D.C. — In a petition today to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, voters supported by the National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF) filed a lawsuit asking the court to step in to draw the state’s new congressional districts.
Current dynamics make it clear that the Republican-led state legislature and Democratic Governor Tom Wolf will not be able to reach an agreement on a congressional map in a timely manner for the 2022 election cycle. Also known as “impasse litigation,” the purpose of this lawsuit is to ask the court to enact a new map based on 2020 Census data, because the Commonwealth’s executive and legislative branches have failed to do so, allowing the 2022 election cycle to continue as scheduled.
“The congressional redistricting process in Pennsylvania has hit an impasse, and it is now up to the court to step in and produce a map that complies with the fundamental principle of one person, one vote,” said Marina Jenkins, Director of Litigation and Policy for the NRAF. “The Republican-led legislature sat on their hands for months, advanced a controversial map through committee, and then ended the legislative year with this critical work of democracy incomplete. Because of this failure, the court must now begin its process to ensure that the Commonwealth has a new congressional map in time for use in the forthcoming 2022 elections. The new map should accurately reflect the will of the people, keep communities of interest together, and protect the voting power of communities of color. The legislature has failed Pennsylvanians; the court must now protect voters’ rights.”
Due to slow population growth in comparison to other states, Pennsylvania has been allocated one less congressional seat than in the last decade, going from a total of 18 congressional districts to a total of 17. For that reason, in addition to the need for the map to reflect population shifts within the state, the current congressional map cannot be lawfully used in the 2022 election cycle; to do so would violate the Free and Equal Elections Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution, Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, and 2 U.S.C § 2c.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly has adjourned and will not reconvene again until January 2022 – making it impossible for Pennsylvania’s political branches to reach an agreement on a congressional map by the end of December, the date by which the Department of State previously explained it would need an enacted map in order to conduct the 2022 electoral process on time.
You can view the full petition here.
About NRAF
The National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF) is the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. The mission of the NRAF is to harness the power of people and the courts to dismantle unfair electoral maps and create a redistricting system based on democratic values. By helping to create more just and representative electoral districts across the country, we also hope to restore the public’s faith in a true representative democracy.
