Thursday, January 26, 2012

PA Supreme Court throws out reapportionment

Pa. high court rejects remapping plan

Wow. This is a surprise given that there are 4 Republicans and 3 Democrats on the court. Chief Justice Ronald Castille sided with the Democrats that the plan for the state legislature chopped up too many towns just to advantage the Republicans.


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Justice Joan Orie Melvin predictably thought that was OK. In a 2009 appearance in Wilkes-Barre she gave a speech that was inappropriately long for a warm up act, Melvin basically said "elect me so Republicans make of the majority of the PA Supreme Court, and we can rig the 2010 reapportionment for the Republicans." She later had a campiagn ad with a Soviet-era hammer-and-sickle inside the "O" in Obama's last name. Now she is the target of a criminal investigation.


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Calls grow for Supreme Court Justice Melvin to resign

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Right now it looks like the old maps wil be used in the upcoming election but that could change once the Supreme Court opinion is released.

1 comment:

Stephen Albert said...

This was surprising, although I still have a tough time with many Democrats crying foul when they, if they could, would be just as guilty of gerrymandering. Put another way, this isn't a "Republican" problem...this is a problem with a political process that allows the party in control to protect incumbents in all manner of creative ways.

Give credit though the justices who voted this down. It's always a good thing when public servants rise above our low expectations.