Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati is signaling that he plans to ignore a court order from the state's Supreme Court to turn over data and redraw congressional district lines after a court found them to be gerrymandered.
On Wednesday, Scarnati's lawyer said that the court gave the State Assembly no guidance in how to redraw the maps constitutionally. He also noted that Scarnati wouldn't turn over data to the Supreme Court, saying that the courts was overstepping its jurisdiction.
Lawyer Brian Paszamant said the court's plan was to "usurp the General Assembly’s constitutionally delegated role of drafting Pennsylvania’s congressional districting plan," according to the Morning Call.
The GOP has long benefitted from gerrymandering, specifically since its redrawing of district lines after the 2010 U.S. Census, as an effort to tilt elections in their favor. Most recently, federal judges declared gerrymandering in North Carolina to be unconstitutional and in favor of the GOP, as Salon has previously reported. The ruling was later blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court, and will likely remain in effect for the GOP in the 2018 midterm election.
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