Pennsylvania’s new congressional map was adopted by the State Supreme Court in February -after the governor vetoed the legislature’s map – but a new lawsuit is looking to federal courts to allow the state’s congressional representatives to be elected at large in the upcoming 2022 election.
On March 7, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an emergency stay order request that would have accomplished this quickly. Instead, the matter is before a three-judge court whose decision may be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The crux of the challenge is that the State Supreme Court does not have the authority to “substitute” a different map from what the legislature enacted unless there is some legal infirmity in the legislature’s map. However, since the governor vetoed the map passed by the legislature, state courts need not intervene because the U.S. Constitution has already prescribed what should happen in just such a case.
“After the governor’s veto, any map imposed by the state supreme court would be flatly unconstitutional. The Elections Clause [of the U.S. constitution] says that “the Legislature”—not the judiciary—must “prescribe” the manner of electing representatives, and the General Assembly has not authorized the state judiciary to draw congressional maps or participate in the redistricting process in any way. If the General Assembly fails to enact a new congressional map in time for the 2022 elections, then the remedy is set forth in 2 U.S.C. § 2a(c) which states that the state’s congressional delegation shall be elected at-large.”
Toth v. Chapman, Emergency Application To Justice Alito
For Writ Of Injunction, Feb. 28, 2022.
The argument that the U.S. constitution’s Elections Clause supersedes a state court’s power to adopt a remedial map in cases of legislative impasse, is what is known as the “independent state legislature doctrine.” Plaintiffs in lawsuits from both Pennsylvania and North Carolina are testing this doctrine and while both lawsuits were denied emergency stays for the 2022 election, some justices on the court have voiced interest in taking up the issue this year. For more analysis on this, see this discussion in ScotusBlog and the ElectionlawBlog.
Read Media Coverage in: Wall Street Journal, AP News, and WTAE.
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