PA GOP Files Amicus Brief With U.S. Supreme Court

 

Amicus Asserts That State Supreme Court Ruling Raises Grave Concerns About Disruption of 2018 Elections.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Today, in an effort to support Pennsylvania’s legislative leaders, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and Speaker of the House Mike Turzai, the Republican Party of Pennsylvania filed an Amicus Brief with the United States Supreme Court over the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s gross constitutional overstep by unilaterally tossing out Pennsylvania’s congressional maps.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s order for the General Assembly to redraw congressional districts is premature and counterproductive given the United States Supreme Court’s issue of a Stay for North Carolina’s congressional maps, along with its impending ruling on Wisconsin’s maps. “Our Amicus filing clearly demonstrates that a Stay is necessary. Candidates, Committee Members, and voters of all political parties face irreparable harm if maps are redrawn within such close proximity to our 2018 elections,” said Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Val DiGiorgioDiGiorgio added, “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to legislate from the bench is dangerous to our democracy — the majority justices are blatantly over overstepping their constitutional authority in a partisan attempt to create more favorable maps for their Democratic Party.”

In a functioning republic, it is imperative that all branches of government exercise their constitutional authority without interfering with another branch’s constitutional rights. The constitutional role of the state legislature is to create congressional maps, which was successfully  done in a bipartisan manner in 2011. It is beyond difficult to understand how the concerns of the petitioners over the congressional maps only came to light after three congressional elections were held. “Since 2011 when the maps were signed into law with bipartisan support, the only things to happen since then and now were the disappointing results of Democrats in three congressional elections and the makeup of the majority on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court. Based on these facts, it is reasonable to conclude that Democrats are manufacturing a constitutional crisis for political gain,” DiGiorgio concluded.

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