PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard hours of arguments on a dozen congressional maps, as they’re now tasked with picking one.
Several hours of testimony showed the challenge of drawing and selecting congressional district maps. Multiple times, justices said they did not ask for this, yet they’re stuck selecting a final map because the governor and the state Legislature could not come to an agreement.
Lawyers for Republican state legislators pointed out that the map they passed met the criteria but was vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf.
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Lawyers for each of the 12 groups gave their rationale as to why their map should be selected, all under the criteria of making sure each district is the same size, based on the compactness of districts; keeping communities of interest together; and avoiding splitting up municipalities and counties.
Political control in Washington is at stake, as courts and lawmakers in many other states hash out the boundaries of congressional districts to last for a decade, through 2032.
One of those debates involved the question of splitting Pittsburgh among two districts, and whether splitting a city should come after splitting a county. Splitting Pittsburgh would create two Democratic-leaning districts, as opposed to drawing one heavily Democratic district with the entire city inside of it and a separate district next door that is politically divided.
Democrats typically propose splitting the city, while Republicans oppose it.
Attorney Robert Tucker, representing state House speaker Brian Cutler, closed his argument by quoting political scientists who say there are more ways to redistrict Pennsylvania than there are atoms in the universe.
Tucker said there is basically no way to decide what map is fairer, so he points to the 200-plus-page report from appointed special master Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough, which recommends the map passed by the state Legislature. However, that map was vetoed by Wolf.
Tucker pointed out there was no argument as to why that recommendation shouldn’t be followed.
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Complicating the map-drawing is the fact that Pennsylvania is losing a congressional seat — going from 18 to 17 seats in the U.S. House — because of comparatively slow population growth reflected in the 2020 census.
The high court has set a schedule for a challenge of the legislative maps with briefs and replies due by mid-March.
A lawyer for the Pennsylvania Department of State told the court they want to do all they can to avoid moving the May 17 primary. And, as long as they have a final congressional map by Feb. 27 and a legislative map by March 18, they’ll be able to keep the primary on May 17.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.