WILKES-BARRE, PA — A legal battle over Luzerne County’s anti-discrimination ordinance escalated this week as six residents filed an amended 1,126-page court complaint seeking to throw out petition signatures and block a proposed repeal referendum from reaching voters in the 2027 primary election.
The massive filing comes in response to an order from a three-judge Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas panel. Last month, the judicial panel ruled that the challengers’ original complaint lacked sufficient specific detail for "meaningful judicial review." The judges directed the group to submit a revised complaint within 30 days detailing every contested signature line-by-line, the specific defects alleged, and the supporting legal arguments.
The resulting amended filing consists of a nine-page legal complaint accompanied by more than 1,100 pages of supporting exhibits. Those exhibits meticulously document individual petition pages, contested voter signatures, and circulator affidavits that the challengers argue violate state election code and the county home rule charter.
Opponents of the anti-discrimination ordinance had submitted thousands of signatures in an effort to force County Council to either repeal the measure outright or place the repeal question before voters as a ballot referendum. If the court upholds the challengers' objections and invalidates enough signatures to drop the petition below the legal threshold, the referendum will be kept off the ballot.
A hearing date before the Court of Common Pleas panel has not yet been announced.
