Washington
The practical impact is the 2018 elections are likely to be held under a map much more favorable to Democrats, who scored an apparent victory last week in a special election in a strongly Republican congressional district.
The 2011 map that has been used this decade has resulted in Republicans consistently winning 13 of the state’s 18 congressional seats.
Monday’s action was the second time that the court declined to get involved in the partisan battle that has roiled Pennsylvania politics.
The commonwealth’s highest court earlier this year ruled that a map drawn by Republican leaders in 2011 “clearly, plainly and palpably” violated the free-and-equal-elections clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court deliberated nearly two weeks before turning down the request to stop the map from being used in this fall’s elections. Generally the justices stay out of the way when a state’s highest court is interpreting its own state constitution.
The action came shortly after a three-judge federal panel also turned down a separate attempt by Republican legislators and members of Congress to stop implementation of the map.
The Supreme Court gave no reasoning in its one-sentence order, only that it was considered by all nine justices. There were no noted dissents.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, D, praised the courts.
“I applaud these decisions that will allow the upcoming election to move forward with the new and fair congressional maps,” Wolf said in a statement. “The people of Pennsylvania are tired of gerrymandering and the new map corrects past mistakes that created unfair congressional districts and attempted to diminish the impact of citizens’ votes.”
Under the map drawn by a nonpartisan expert and adopted by Democratic justices of Pennsylvania’s elected Supreme Court, analysts said Republicans start with an edge in 10 of the 18 districts.