Shan’t
Pennsylvania Republicans are refusing to obey a court order to redraw their congressional map to make it not so grotesquely gerrymandered.
A top Pennsylvania state Senate Republican is refusing to follow a court order requiring lawmakers to turn over data that would redraw the state’s congressional map.
In a letter to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which struck down the map, state Sen. Joe Scarnati on Wednesday called the order unconstitutional and said he would not comply.
“In light of the unconstitutionality of the court’s orders and the court’s plain intent to usurp the General Assembly’s constitutionally delegated role of drafting Pennsylvania’s congressional district plan, Senator Scarnati will not be turning over any data identified in the court’s orders,” wrote Brian Paszamant, Scarnati’s attorney.
Let’s hear more about how patriotic and law-respecting the Republicans are.
They are all just flat-out ignoring the law now. Trump’s refusing to place the congressionally ordered sanctions on Russia, too. He signed the bill, but he’s just not doing it.
WTH. they’re not even pretending anymore.
Why not ignore it? There’s no consequences for doing so…
“How many divisions does the Pennsylvania supreme court have?”
Ed Brayton has a good analysis is this move:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2018/02/01/pa-republicans-refusing-comply-courts-gerrymandering-order/
Have you seen the map? Short of marking areas with “Here be Negroes!” their intention couldn’t be clearer.
The Republicans aren’t refusing to redraw the maps. There are two parts to the court order. They are going ahead and submitting new maps, but they are not following the second part of the order, which is to turn over information, so that, if the court rejects the new maps, the court can redraw them on its own.
That is a significant difference. I can see a constitutional question on the court drawing up maps itself. If the information was ordered to be turned over to ensure the maps were fair, then this behavior would clearly be an issue, but I’m not sure it’s so cut and dry here.
tgt,
Failing to comply with half of a court order is still contempt of court. There’s no partial credit.