Republicans Just Want to Keep Their Gerrymandered Districts Until the Next Presidential Election, OK?

By Katie McDonough  |  January 30, 2018 | 3:20pm
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Pennsylvania’s deeply gerrymandered congressional district map is “clearly, plainly, and palpably” unconstitutional and must be redrawn before this year’s elections, according to a ruling issued earlier this month by the state supreme court. Nevertheless, Republicans would very much like to keep those unconstitutional districts in place at least until the next presidential election because, “put simply, there is no need to hurry.”

As reported Tuesday by the Huffington Post, six Republican secretaries of state filed a joint amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in support of Pennsylvania’s appeal, asking the high court to review the state court ruling.

As of now, the state supreme court has ordered the Republican-controlled state legislature to submit a new map for review by Feb. 15; after that, Democratic Governor Tom Wolf can either veto or implement it. If the state legislature or governor refuse to comply, the court will appoint a professor from Stanford University to redraw the districts.

But as Republicans argue in their brief, if the districts must be redrawn, why not wait… oh, maybe… just thinking of a number off the top of their heads… until 2021?

“The Census will be conducted in 2020, the results distributed in the first quarter of 2021, and the states will have to put new congressional plans in place for 2022,” the assembled states wrote in the brief. “In that next round of redistricting, any newly-developed parameters of any limitation on political gerrymandering can be taken into account.”

Oh, two federal elections will have taken place during that period of time? Weird, I’m sure that had nothing to do with the request.

 
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