HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The Latest on congressional redistricting in Pennsylvania (all times local):
6:15 p.m.
Lawyers for the Democratic voters who successfully challenged Pennsylvania’s congressional districts as unconstitutionally gerrymandered say Republicans have no legal or factual basis to sue over new court-ordered districts.
The Philadelphia-based Public Interest Law Center said in a statement Tuesday that Republican lawmakers should stop holding onto the gerrymandered districts they drew in 2011.
Republican state legislators and members of Congress plan to sue in federal court as early as Wednesday. They’ll try to block new districts drawn by Pennsylvania’s Democratic-majority Supreme Court from taking effect in the May primary election.
The Public Interest Law Center’s lawyers defend the court’s map as non-partisan, with districts that are more compact and competitive. The court-imposed congressional map overhauls a Republican-drawn map widely viewed as among the nation’s most gerrymandered.
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2:30 p.m.
Federal and state Republican Party officials are expected to sue to contest a Pennsylvania court’s redrawing of the state’s 18 congressional districts.
The National Republican Congressional Committee said the lawsuit could be filed as early as Wednesday. Tuesday’s statement says the lawsuit “will highlight the state supreme court’s rushed decision that created chaos, confusion and unnecessary expense.”
Republicans in Pennsylvania previously said they’d sue to block the court’s map and argue that legislatures and governors, not courts, have the constitutional responsibility to draw congressional maps.
The court-imposed congressional map overhauls a Republican-drawn map widely viewed as among the nation’s most gerrymandered.
It also gives Democrats a better shot at winning a couple more seats as the party tries to wrest control of the U.S. House.
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8:45 a.m.
President Donald Trump is encouraging Pennsylvania Republicans to challenge a new court-imposed congressional map all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.
Trump tweeted Tuesday that Republicans’ map “was correct! Don’t let the Dems take elections away from you so that they can raise taxes & waste money!”
The Democratic-majority Pennsylvania Supreme Court voted 4-3 on Monday to impose a new map for the state’s 18 congressional districts, effective for the May 15 primary.
The new map substantially overhauls a Republican-drawn congressional map widely viewed as among the most gerrymandered in the nation, and boosts Democrats heading into November’s election.
The new boundaries will usher in changes to Pennsylvania’s predominantly Republican congressional delegation, which is already facing big changes with six open seats.
Legal challenges are expected.
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12 midnight
The map of congressional districts imposed by Pennsylvania’s high court for the state’s 2018 elections boosts Democrats in their mission to wrest control of the U.S. House.
Republicans have vowed to immediately challenge it in federal court, perhaps as early as Tuesday.
The map of Pennsylvania’s 18 congressional districts takes effect for the May 15 primary and substantially overhauls a Republican-drawn congressional map widely viewed as among the nation’s most gerrymandered.
New boundaries will usher in changes to Pennsylvania’s predominantly Republican delegation.
Most significantly, the new map gives Democrats a better shot at winning a couple more seats, particularly in Philadelphia’s heavily populated and moderate suburbs.
Meanwhile, candidates are finding themselves in a new landscape and rethinking campaigns a week before they can start circulating petitions to run.
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