SUPREME COURT/VOTING: “The Supreme Court is facing a sensitive choice on whether to intervene in a partisan battle over Pennsylvania’s congressional map, a decision expected within days that could have considerable political and legal ramifications for the midterm elections.
With the state’s primary vote about three months away, Pennsylvania candidates and voters don’t know what their districts will look like, after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated the state’s map on Jan. 22.
A divided Pennsylvania high court said Republicans had unlawfully gerrymandered the districts to maximize the GOP’s power. That court gave state lawmakers just a few weeks to redraw the districts and said the court would do so if the legislature did not.
Republican state legislators have sought emergency intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a stay of the Pennsylvania court ruling. That would likely allow the current map to remain in place for the 2018 elections, in which control of the U.S. House is at stake.”
-Brent Kendall and Scott Calvert, “Pennsylvania Congressional Map Faces Supreme Court Call,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 4, 2018 07:00am